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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – About 870 prisoners escaped during a Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, Afghan officials said Saturday.
The complex attack included a truck bombing at the main gate, a suicide bomber who struck a back wall and rockets fired from inside the prison courtyard, setting off a series of explosions that rattled Kandahar, the country’s second biggest city.
The rockets demolished an upper prison floor, said Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, a deputy minister at the Justice Ministry. Nine police were killed in the attack, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.
There were no indications that the militants received help from the inside, but as a precaution the prison’s chief official, Abdul Qabir, was placed under investigation for possible involvement, Hashimzai said.
A vehicle lays over turned at the entrance gate of a prison, right, after Taliban militants launched an attack in Kandahar.
4 US Marines Killed in Roadside Explosion
… in western Afghanistan, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military vehicle, killing four Americans in the deadliest attack against U.S. troops in the country this year, officials said.
The bomb in the western province of Farah targeted Marines helping to train Afghanistan’s fledgling police force, said U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. David Johnson. One other Marine was wounded in the attack.
Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment based in Twentynine Palms, California, arrived in Afghanistan earlier this year and were sent to southern and western Afghanistan to train police.
The bombing comes one day after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told his counterparts in Europe that for the first time, the monthly total of American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan exceeded the toll in Iraq during May.
I’m just surprised it took them so long. I am sure the Taliban has 870 more men in their organization after god knows what they have been through.
snip and save.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan axis if falling under the sphere of Iran; is setting up to be the world’s greatest problem and the biggest surprise for the powers that be.
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) June 12 — American air and artillery strikes killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers during a clash with insurgents on the Afghan border, a development that raised concerns about the already strained American relationship with Pakistan.
The strikes underscored the often faulty communications involving American, Pakistani and Afghan forces along the border, and the ability of Taliban fighters and other insurgents to use havens in Pakistan to carry out attacks into neighboring Afghanistan.
The attack comes at a time of rising tension between the United States and the new government in Pakistan, which has granted wide latitude to militants in its border areas under a new series of peace deals, drawing criticism from the United States.
NATO and American commanders say cross-border attacks in Afghanistan by insurgents have risen sharply since talks for those peace deals began in March.
Although Pakistani government officials softened their response through the day, the Pakistani military released an early statement calling the airstrikes “unprovoked and cowardly.”
The new Pakistani government sought peace deals with the militants after many Pakistanis saw a drastic increase in suicide bombings in Pakistan as being in retaliation for American strikes.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
KABUL (AP) June 15, 2008 – President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan threatened to send Afghan troops across the border to fight militants in Pakistan, a forceful warning to insurgents and the Pakistani government that his country was fed up with cross-border attacks.
Karzai said that because militants cross over from Pakistan “to come and kill Afghan and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to do the same.”
“Therefore, Baitullah Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house,” Karzai said, referring to the top Taliban leader in Pakistan, suspected in the assassination last year of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.
“And the other fellow, Mullah Omar of Pakistan, should know the same,” Karzai continued, referring to another Taliban leader. “This is a two-way road in this case, and Afghans are good at the two-way road journey. We will complete the journey, and we will get them, and we will defeat them. We will avenge all that they have done to Afghanistan for the past so many years.”
U.S. officials have increased their warnings in recent weeks that the Afghan conflict will drag on for years unless militant havens in Pakistan are taken out.
A politician said 15 police officers were killed in the assault on the prison and subsequent clashes.
Some Taliban field commanders were among those who escaped, a politician from Kandahar said. A Taliban spokesman said that all Taliban prisoners had reached “safe destinations.”
‘Osama, Mullah Omar not Pakistan’s enemies’
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
DEMOCRATS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIGH PRICE GASOLINE
BOULTON: There’s no answer to oil shortage, though, is there?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t — you know, there is, but there’s not a magic wand for today. I mean, politicians would love to be able to say to the consumers, okay, your price of gasoline is dropping precipitously because I said it has to. It took us a while to get in this problem and it’s going to take a while to get out of it.
Now, in America, what we need to be doing is drilling for more oil and gas, except —
BOULTON: There’s a lot of people who say that’s short-sighted. You know, it’s going to run out one day.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, in the meantime you’ve got a bunch of people squawking about the price of gasoline. And because we didn’t try to find more oil and gas, we’re in a pinch in America.
Secondly, hydrocarbons is simply a transition to new technologies. And what we’re learning is it’s going to take a while for new technologies to get on the market. And the question is, will consumers pay more for gasoline or will they have a reasonable price for gasoline? And as a result of the Democratic Congress not letting us drill for oil and gas in America, our consumers are paying a higher price for gasoline.
GUANTANAMO BAY
BOULTON: But the Supreme Court have just said that — you know, ruled against what you’ve been doing down there.
THE PRESIDENT: But the district court didn’t. And the appellate court didn’t.
BOULTON: The Supreme Court is supreme, isn’t it?
THE PRESIDENT: It is, and I accept their verdict. I don’t agree with their verdict. And it’s not what I was doing down there. This was a law passed by our United States Congress that I worked with the Congress to get passed and sign into law.
BOULTON: But it looked like an attempt to bypass the Constitution, to a certain extent.
THE PRESIDENT: This was a law passed, Adam. We passed a law. Bypassing the Constitution means that we did something outside the bounds of the Constitution. We went to the Congress and got a piece of legislation passed.
BOULTON: Which is now being struck down, I think.
THE PRESIDENT: It is, and I accept what the Supreme Court did, and I necessarily don’t have to agree with it.
My only point to you is, is that yes, I mean, we certainly wish Abu Ghraib hadn’t happened, but that should not reflect America. This was the actions of some soldiers …
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
WASHINGTON – Military psychologists were enlisted to help develop more aggressive interrogation methods, including snarling dogs, forced nudity and long periods of standing, against terrorism suspects, according to a Senate investigation.
Democrats contend that the Senate investigation will refute the Bush administration’s argument that abusive conditions in some military prisons were only the result of a handful of personnel.
The Pentagon’s top civilian lawyer at the time, chief counsel William “Jim” Haynes, was expected to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Also scheduled to be present were Richard Shiffrin, Haynes’ former deputy on intelligence matters, as well as legal advisers at the time to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Shortly after requesting more information about harsh techniques, Haynes traveled in September 2002 to Guantanamo Bay with other administration lawyers, including then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief counsel, David Addington.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Canadian soldiers are playing a major role in a multinational push to keep the Taliban from advancing and are accompanied by the Afghan army and U.S. special forces, said Ahmed Wali Karzai. But their path was blocked by bombed-out culverts and landmines planted by the rebels, he added.
Karzai said the Taliban had nabbed control of more than a half-dozen villages in the lush Arghandab river valley, just next door to Kandahar city, the birthplace of the Taliban. “They have taken over there,” Karzai told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview.
“There are also strong rumours that they will attack Kandahar city at strategic points – my house, the government’s house, the police station.”
The Taliban’s push into the Arghandab district comes three days after an attack on Kandahar’s prison that freed an estimated 400 insurgent fighters.
For now, the Taliban have set up position in villages immediately across the river that borders the city, which is home to the international base where most of Canada’s 2,500 troops are stationed.
The villages under rebel control separate Kandahar city from the $50-million dam project Canada announced last week as its flagship reconstruction effort in the country.
But the concern was palpable even inside the NATO security bubble. Some employees of the international troops refused to leave their homes out of concern for their safety and did not come into work. One Canadian soldier bluntly assessed the situation:
“Shit’s hitting the fan,” he said. “They want to take the city. They want to make a statement.”
US terror drive stalled in political quagmire
Mohammad Eisah Khan, a former judge and a tribal elder in Kandahar with a long, white beard, rattled off the reasons support for the government is slipping.
“There is no security, the people are not safe,” he said. The government “is plagued by corruption. There is no education. There are very few schools. There are no good doctors in Kandahar province.”
The Afghan government is facing a “crisis of legitimacy” because many appointed administrators “are quite simply thugs,” said Joanna Nathan, the Afghanistan analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."It sure is.
Another American asset comes back to bite.
IHT Profile:
Old-line Taliban commander is face of rising Afghan threat
The Russian generals did warn. With 500,000 troops, they were defeated. American and NATO forces won’t prevail. This piece of real estate will become another Waterloo.