Free Republic

Private Bergdahl - assuming he's still alive - is spending Christmas as a captive of the Taliban. His captors spent the last day or two uploading a video showing Private Bergdahl reading a statement. The video was divided into four segments and uploaded to YouTube on 25 December 2009. The YouTube account is:

The US carried out its second Predator airstrike inside South Waziristan today. Unmanned Predator aircraft killed more than 65 Taliban fighters in a follow-on attack near the headquarters for Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The Predator strike aircraft fired three Hellfire missiles as Taliban fighters gathered for a funeral of Khog Wali, a leader in Baitullah's army in South Waziristan who was among six Taliban fighters killed in the first US airstrike earlier today. Commander Sangeen, a Taliban commander from Afghanistan, was reported to be among those killed in the strike at the funeral. Predators are said to have fired...

KABUL, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Afghan army backed by the U.S.-led Coalition forces have killed a senior commander of Haqqani Network, which is loyal to the Taliban, in an operation on Dec. 11 in eastern Afghanistan, said a Coalition statement issued here on Friday. Mullah Sageen, who is responsible for attacks on Afghan forces and improvised explosive device bombings, was the second in command to militant commander Siraj Haqqani, the head of the Haqqani network, the statement said. Meanwhile Sageen is the second major Haqqani network member killed in the last 45 days, it added. Sangeen carries a reward...

An armoured column of 250 Royal Marines smashed into Sangeen yesterday down the main road from the north, driving off Taliban fighters who had been attacking a small British "platoon house" Such was the ferocity of the operation that the rebels were taken completely by surprise and, despite mounting a weak counter-attack, could not stop the Marines linking up with American troops from the 82nd Airborne Division from the south. Embedded with Lima Company of 42 Commando under Major Gill Duncan, I can report that the operation was completed without a single British casualty. "The aim is to shock the...