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’d read “Infidel” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and came away with the understanding that much is done via death threats. In fact, her life is in danger now and the liberals in the West are arguing a racist and sexist argument as she fails to comply with your standard.
So, yes, I will think differently.
I agree that the islamofascists want to cause the deaths of innocents on both sides and that we can’t prevent it. In this case, we know that some islamofascists died. All I am saying is that we don’t know of the composition.
I agree that this is a War to defend Western Civilization. I am merely saying that sometimes there are innocents who had their families held at gunpoint. Perhaps none were in this case, but we do not know.
Look: I’m not crazy about this “innocents” situation either, but we really have to realize that in order to make this omelet eggs are going to be cracked. Sorry I was so harsh, but we really have to get cold-blooded about this or we’re going to be returning to the Dark Ages... I’m not joking at all, and a couple years ago I wrote extensively about that subject - replete with walled cities and people not trusting anyone other than their closest friends and family... the progress toward that will be inexorable if we reward terrorism by letting them dictate political outcomes by terrorist methods, since other groups will then take the lesson and start doing the same.
don’t you mean, salvage the “heroic” boat?
I am not advocating eliminating harm to innocents. I am making a point about those who assume that everyone on that boat was guilty. They could well have been but we don’t know.
That wasn’t advocacy to tie the hands of those fighting the good fight— they have to do what they have to do, but we have to be straight about what we know and what we don’t. It is okay not to know something, but it’s important to be open about it.
I wasn’t intending to make the bleeding heart argument about how to stop hurting innocent people. In warfare, the US has made vast steps toward precision fighting, but this enemy does seek to hide behind children and anyone else who if hurt will invoke sympathy. I won’t stop having sympathy for someone hurt who should not have been, but I support everything our military is doing (and is planning to do) to defend Western Civ.
“If there were one Taliban, the others are guilty by association.”
On September 11, 2001 there were 4 or 5 terrorists on each of 4 airplanes. Are you saying that all who were on those planes were guilty by association?
Snicker....
/applause
“Of course, tomorrow it’ll be revealed on CNN that the boat was REALLY filled with 150 frightened, starving children and widowed women refugees on their way to the market to buy bread to take to a wedding, where they were planning to sing hymns and discuss ways to reverse global warming. And each kid had one blind puppy and one crippled kitten. And/or vice versa.”
You forgot to add that CNN’s sources were annonymous sources from within the Administration.
I think that is what we will hear and read.
Different cicumstances, wouldn’t you say? But, no, obviously you don’t.
Follow up story: apparently all the dead were Taliban, who had “built a raft”... LOL
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1844070/posts
SandRat: you may wish to ping your list to that article .... LOL
dfwgator
This brings new meaning to the phrase, “Cry me a river!”.
LOL
Perfect graphic at post 75 for post 73 ping!
Especially if they will use it again.
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