Sunday, August 24, 2008

10 Taliban Killed In Two Ambushes In Afghanistan - More Biased AP Reporting


The Taliban ambushes continue daily, and although 10 of the Taliban attackers were killed in the two separate attacks, the cold fact is that patrols for U.S. and NATO forces continue to be targeted. Here's some of the details at Breitbart:


Taliban militants attacked a patrol of U.S.-led coalition troops in northern Afghanistan, while insurgents came under fire by NATO aircraft after attacking an Afghan army outpost in the south. At least 10 militants were killed in the fighting, officials said.

In the north, coalition troops returned fire after being attacked by militants while on patrol in the volatile Tagab valley of Kapisa province—near where the Taliban killed 10 French troops on Tuesday, said coalition spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry.
Rahimullah Safi, the province's deputy governor, said six militants were killed in the clash, while Perry said "multiple militants" were killed.
In southern Helmand province Sunday, militants attacked an Afghan army unit that was guarding an outpost in Helmand's Musa Qala district. NATO aircraft responding to the attack killed four militants, the military alliance said in a statement.
Now, I want to point out something about this report featured at Breitbart but was written by Associated Press writer, Amir Shah. Now, I don't know who exactly Amir Shah is but he is incorporating a typical pro-Taliban tactic in this article. First of all, you will notice that in a story about how 10 Taliban were killed in two ambushes, where NO U.S. or NATO forces were killed or injured, Shah inserts this as the SECOND paragraph of his story:

Violence has spiked around Afghaninstan in recent weeks, and the Taliban have stepped up attacks against international troops. Last week the U.S. military suffered its 101st death, when Sgt. 1st Class David J. Todd Jr., 36, of Marrero, La., died in a gunfire attack. This year will likely be deadlier for U.S. troops than last year's record 111 deaths.

Notice how Shah puts in the blurb about U.S. troop deaths for the year where it has no relevance to the story? This is typical AP propaganda. Now the other thing is to look at the photos that accompany this article. If you go to the Breitbart link and look at the photos of the on the left hand side, you don't see pictures of dead Taliban or any reference to the attacks by the Taliban...what you see are photos of supposed NATO air strike damage to Afghan civilian homes. Under one photo, Shah even goes so far as to write:


"An Afghan woman shouts anti-American slogans in front of her destroyed home...."


Finally, the entire second half of this article is totally unrelated to the headline but gives Shah another chance to bring up propaganda reports of NATO air strikes missing their marks and how Afghanistan's Karzai is critical of those air strikes. Funny how Shah usually fails to report on the beheadings of Afghans by Taliban or the hundreds of civilians killed in their suicide bombings. I would say that nearly 70% of AP reports coming out of Afghanistan show this bias and yet I rarely see any bloggers or MSM outlets decry it.


10 Taliban fighters killed in Afghan clashes

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Taliban militants attacked a patrol of U.S.-led coalition troops in northern Afghanistan, while insurgents came under fire by NATO aircraft after attacking an Afghan army outpost in the south. At least 10 militants were killed in the fighting, officials said.
Violence has spiked around Afghaninstan in recent weeks, and the Taliban have stepped up attacks against international troops. Last week the U.S. military suffered its 101st death, when Sgt. 1st Class David J. Todd Jr., 36, of Marrero, La., died in a gunfire attack. This year will likely be deadlier for U.S. troops than last year's record 111 deaths.
In the north, coalition troops returned fire after being attacked by militants while on patrol in the volatile Tagab valley of Kapisa province—near where the Taliban killed 10 French troops on Tuesday, said coalition spokesman 1st Lt. Nathan Perry.
Rahimullah Safi, the province's deputy governor, said six militants were killed in the clash, while Perry said "multiple militants" were killed.
In southern Helmand province Sunday, militants attacked an Afghan army unit that was guarding an outpost in Helmand's Musa Qala district. NATO aircraft responding to the attack killed four militants, the military alliance said in a statement.
In the eastern Kunar province, a civilian Mi-8 supply helicopter contracted by NATO-led troops crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday, killing one person on board and wounding three others, the alliance said in a statement.
It said the helicopter was leaving a NATO base in the area when it crashed. The statement gave no furtehr details.
More than 3,400 people—mostly militants—have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to figures from Western and Afghan officials.
This year will likely be the deadliest for international troops since the 2001 invasion. Some 188 international soldiers, including the 101 Americans, have died in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count. That pace should far surpass the record 222 international troop deaths in 2007.

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