Posted on 04/20/2008 3:06:43 PM PDT by RDTF
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The son of the new Dutch defense chief was killed Friday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, and the Taliban claimed that they deliberately made him a high-profile victim of their deadly insurgency.
Lt. Dennis van Uhm, 23, was one of two Dutch soldiers killed in the explosion 7 miles (12 kilometers) northwest of Camp Holland, the Dutch military base in restive Uruzgan province, spokesman Lt. Gen. Freek Meulman said. Two more soldiers were injured, one critically.
Meulman was standing in for Gen. Peter van Uhm, who was installed as defense chief only on Thursday and would likely have delivered the news had his son not been among the victims.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed that the militants knew in advance about van Uhm's movements.
"When he came out, the Taliban planted a mine, which killed him," Ahmadi said in a phone call from an undisclosed location.
The Dutch government, however, rejected the claim.
"Our information is that there is no indication of any link between this cowardly deed and the fact that it was the son of the defense chief," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said in The Hague.
Balkenende and a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Robin Middel, refused to comment when asked whether van Uhm, who began his tour of duty in Afghanistan only about two weeks ago, received any special protection.
Wim van den Burg of the Federation of Military Personnel agreed that it was very unlikely the Taliban deliberately picked off the defense chief's son.
"I doubt they even knew who van Uhm was," van den Burg said. "This is just propaganda for them."
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(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
It is obvious that AQ has moles in Governments in the West. They are actively gathering information and movements of high officials and their families throughout the world. The rich had better be worried.
That would be the new york times for one. They printed the story about John McCain’s son after he asked them not to.
None of the local Afghan personnel is to be trusted. They are all muslim of course and extremely vulnerable for a variety of reasons, especially the life of their parents, children, brothers, sisters, who are all in mortal danger, for no one is safe from the rage of the Taliban. How one can suppose for even one second that the Afghan personnel will not tell the Taliban everything what they know of what’s going on in the foreign unbelievers’ camps, like the Dutch prime minister J.P. Balkenende implicates, is a complete mystery to me.
And some people wonder why HRH Prince Harry was taken out of Afghanistan as soon as news broke of his deployment there?!
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