Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
January 14, 2007
BAGRAM, Afghanistan, Jan. 13 (AP) — An Afghan insurgent leader operating from Pakistan sent about 200 ill-equipped fighters, some wearing plastic bags on their feet, into Afghanistan, where most were killed in a major battle this week, an American general said Saturday.
The general, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, said the insurgent leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, recruited and sent unemployed and untrained men to fight in Afghanistan.
United States forces killed about 130 fighters moving in two groups in Paktika Province in the east late Wednesday and early Thursday, in one of the largest winter battles in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
General Freakley said the fighters “were from Jalaluddin Haqqani and we believe, though we don’t know exactly where, that Jalaluddin Haqqani is operating from inside Pakistan and sending men to fight in Afghanistan.”
Western and Afghan officials accuse Pakistan of not doing enough to stop Taliban fighters using Pakistani soil as a training ground from crossing the border into Afghanistan. Pakistan says it does all it can to stop the fighters.
No officials in Pakistan could be reached immediately for comment.
General Freakley said one of the enemies in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area is unemployment.
“It is clear to me that some of these men were just either collected in a poor part of a village or perhaps from a madrasa or perhaps from a refugee camp and told to come fight,” he said. “The message to the enemies of Afghanistan and the enemies of world peace would be that you can come at us with two people, 20 people, 200 people, 2,000 people, you’ll be defeated and your young men will needlessly be killed.”
General Freakley said it was likely the insurgent fighters meant to attack a new military outpost near the village of Marghah that has affected insurgent infiltration routes.
In southern Afghanistan, meanwhile, NATO troops fought insurgents on Saturday in a battle that left one Western soldier dead.
Taliban militants stepped up attacks last year, and insurgent-related violence killed about 4,000 people in the bloodiest year since the American-led coalition ousted the Taliban in late 2001.
January 14, 2007
BAGRAM, Afghanistan, Jan. 13 (AP) — An Afghan insurgent leader operating from Pakistan sent about 200 ill-equipped fighters, some wearing plastic bags on their feet, into Afghanistan, where most were killed in a major battle this week, an American general said Saturday.
The general, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, said the insurgent leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, recruited and sent unemployed and untrained men to fight in Afghanistan.
United States forces killed about 130 fighters moving in two groups in Paktika Province in the east late Wednesday and early Thursday, in one of the largest winter battles in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
General Freakley said the fighters “were from Jalaluddin Haqqani and we believe, though we don’t know exactly where, that Jalaluddin Haqqani is operating from inside Pakistan and sending men to fight in Afghanistan.”
Western and Afghan officials accuse Pakistan of not doing enough to stop Taliban fighters using Pakistani soil as a training ground from crossing the border into Afghanistan. Pakistan says it does all it can to stop the fighters.
No officials in Pakistan could be reached immediately for comment.
General Freakley said one of the enemies in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area is unemployment.
“It is clear to me that some of these men were just either collected in a poor part of a village or perhaps from a madrasa or perhaps from a refugee camp and told to come fight,” he said. “The message to the enemies of Afghanistan and the enemies of world peace would be that you can come at us with two people, 20 people, 200 people, 2,000 people, you’ll be defeated and your young men will needlessly be killed.”
General Freakley said it was likely the insurgent fighters meant to attack a new military outpost near the village of Marghah that has affected insurgent infiltration routes.
In southern Afghanistan, meanwhile, NATO troops fought insurgents on Saturday in a battle that left one Western soldier dead.
Taliban militants stepped up attacks last year, and insurgent-related violence killed about 4,000 people in the bloodiest year since the American-led coalition ousted the Taliban in late 2001.