On Thursday, a major insider attack in Kandahar Province killed most of the top provincial leadership all at once. The Taliban has taken credit for the attack, and said their intended target was US commander Gen. Scott Miller, who managed to survive the attack unharmed.
The bodyguards present at the attack were apparently Taliban infiltrators, and opened fire during the high-profile security meeting. Governor Zalmay Wesa was killed, as was Deputy Governor Agha Lala Dastageri. Provincial police chief Gen.Abdul-Raziq, one of the top police commanders in the country, was also killed, as was a local intelligence commander.
NATO officials said that two Americans were wounded in the attack, although Gen. Miller was not one of them. They also added that the “attacker” was killed, though indications from all other sources are that there were multiple attackers inside the governor’s compound.
This is by far the single biggest attack against high-ranking officials of the war, as while the Taliban has killed provincial officials several times in the past, and police commanders fairly often, never before have they managed to take out a provincial governor, his deputy, and his police chief all in one felled swoop.
Where this leaves the Kandahar Province is anyone’s guess, especially just two days before parliamentary elections. Kandahar is already the homeland of the Taliban and has a substantial presence of them. With a sudden leadership vacuum on the government side, the Taliban’s control seems set to grow further.
After 17 years it’s great to see we have the Taliban on the run.
Apparently the Taliban didn’t forgive and forget when the US removed them from office, replaced them with a US puppet government and killed most of their leaders. Poor sports!
Anyhow that blah-blah from the new US general over there about “reconciliation” should be over, since he almost bought the farm. It’s obviously time to turn the corner again.
Tired of winning….
Will it eventually come down to helicopters hovering over the American embassy in Kabul, rescuing collaborators and hangers-on, like in Saigon?
No war that was started for bullshit reasons: 19 Arabs, armed with box cutters, led by a dude holed up in a cave in Afghanistan, can ever actually be “won”.
There is no evidence that Osama bin Laden led anybody. OBL was the subject of a Ten Most Wanted flyer but not for 9-11. The US was looking for an excuse to invade Afghanistan for geo-political and financial reasons, and OSB served the purpose with a made-up story about 9-11.
There has been no connection of Osama bin Laden with 9/11 except in the press. Go here to “usama bin laden fbi most wanted” and you will see that bin Laden was wanted “in connection with the. . .bombings of…United States Embassies . . .in addition, Bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world.”
On June 5, 2006, the Muckraker Report contacted the FBI Headquarters, (202) 324-3000, to learn why Bin Laden’s Most Wanted poster did not indicate that Usama was also wanted in connection with 9/11. The Muckraker Report spoke with Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on Bin Laden’s Most Wanted web page, Tomb said, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden’s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.” here
Sorry, Don. That was the pretext for the Afghanistan invasion.
OBL was generally the pretext for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and also Iraq.
The US asked Afghanistan (Taliban governed) for OBL just after 9-11, and Afghanistan said show us some evidence of OBL involvement in 9-11 and we will extradite him. The US never had evidence so it invaded, which was the basic plan before 9-11. The lack of evidence was never mentioned by the US or its MSM lackeys.
Interestingly, while the MSM and others touted OBL as a terrible force of evil, President Bush was never that into OBL. Six months after 9/11, Bush suggested in a press conference that Bin Laden was not a top priority for his administration. Asked whether Bush thought capturing Bin Laden was important, Bush scolded those who cared about Bin Laden for not “understand[ing] the scope of the mission” because Bin Laden was just “one person,” whom Bush said, “I really just don’t spend that much time on”:
This OBL fakery also serves the US in its continuing “eliminate safe haven” argument for being and staying in Afghanistan. It was also the reason OBL had to be assassinated and not captured to appear in a trial.
from DefenseOne–
Taliban violence has delayed parliamentary elections in southern Afghanistan by a week following the group’s brazen assassination attempt Thursday on key Afghan officials.//
That’s apparently in Kandahar only.
The Taliban, meantime, warned Afghans against going to the polls on Saturday, vowing to shut down roads while they monitor developments, Reuters writes.