Posted on 06/02/2007 5:28:29 AM PDT by leadpenny
18 minutes ago
KABUL, Afghanistan - A boat crossing a river in Afghanistan's most dangerous province sank on Saturday, and at least 60 people were killed, including Taliban militants, the Defense Ministry said.
The boat sank while crossing the Helmand River, which snakes through Helmand province, the world's leading opium poppy region and site of fierce battles the last several months. Hundreds of Taliban insurgents are believed to be in Helmand.
The Afghan army was investigating to see how many Taliban insurgents and how many civilians were on board, the ministry said.
Elsewhere, suspected Taliban militants attacked a local police commander's home, killing five of his family members and sparking a gunbattle with police that left 10 insurgents dead, an official said.
The attack in the southeastern province of Ghazni killed the commander's wife, two sons and two nephews, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. The commander worked for Afghanistan's auxiliary police, a system of backup officers who supplement the country's regular police force.
Taliban militants often target police and government officials. More than 1,900 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count based on U.S., NATO and Afghan officials.
At a rally in Pakistan, a man described as the Taliban's new top field commander vowed in an audiotaped message to liberate Afghanistan from "American slavery," said Abdul Sattar Chishti, the cleric who organized the event.
Chishti said more than 12,000 people listened to the speech by the brother of Mullah Dadullah, the top Taliban commander who was killed in a U.S. operation last month in southern Afghanistan.
He said Dadullah Mansoor vowed to avenge his brother's death and those of others killed while fighting U.S., NATO and Afghan forces.
"The blood of my brother will never go waste. We will never forget his sacrifices, and the role of other martyrs. We will complete Dadullah's mission by expelling Americans and liberating Afghanistan," Chishti quoted Mansoor as saying.
It was not immediately possible to verify Chishti's claims about the rally at Killi Nalai, a village about 45 miles west of Quetta near the Afghan border. Although pro-Taliban elders have held similar rallies in northwestern tribal regions, protests the size of the one organized in Killi Nalai are rare.
___
Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
I didn’t know the Taliban had a navy...OR Afghanistan, for that matter.
You're gonna need a bigger boat.
...a threeee-hour tour...
}:-)4
Q: What do you call 60 dead Taliban at the bottom of a river?
a negative Tali?
Thank goodness there was no loss of human lives.
Did the NYT run this with a black border???
Cost-efficient executions.
:-)
God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.
It’s Allah’s will.
See, there is “good news” in the news!
I would of thrown them a life preserver.
Sorry ole chums.
A real tragedy here..
The boat probably had some empty seats when it went down.
“CNN that the boat was REALLY filled with 150 frightened,”
No the CNN headline would be “60 impoverished, dedicated fathers drowned while fleeing American onslaught”
LOL
The ol’ ACME life preserver. that is good.
I always liked wile e, he was a genius.
I have to throw this pic in here now:
“I said I want them dead by the ‘buttload,’ but this will do.”
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