(Updated; originally posted May 1, 2007)
They always have such cool names, huh?
Where are this year's reports, readers?
Go check your War Daily web sites.
"More than 130 Taliban militants killed in Afghanistan" by Fisnik Abrashi Associated Press | May 1, 2007
SANGIN VALLEY, Afghanistan: British troops on Monday pushed into a Taliban stronghold awash with opium poppies, drawing mortar and machine-gun fire, in the latest NATO drive to help the government take control of southern Afghanistan.
As Operation Silicon got under way, the U.S. military reported killing 136 rebels during three days of clashes in the once-stable west, the deadliest fighting in the country since January.
"Once-stable west?" Uh-oh! WE LOSIN'!
The operation in the southern province of Helmand and the bloodshed in the western province of Herat show how Taliban militants have been able to regroup in the five years since a U.S.-led invasion drove them from power.
But it also shows how the growing number of foreign troops and Western-trained Afghan forces are confronting the militants in their rural heartlands.
This sounds like ridiculous propaganda one year later -- which is exactly what it was and is!!!
The British soldiers quickly came under fire as they filtered among the mud-walled compounds and deep irrigation ditches of the militant-held lower Sangin Valley in Helmand. An Associated Press reporter saw the troops respond with artillery and fire from helicopter gunships.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in what NATO said was the latest installment of Operation Achilles, its biggest-ever anti-Taliban maneuver, which began in March.
How many Operations we got going at a given time?
However, the separate U.S.-led coalition forces said they killed 87 militants during a 14-hour engagement, including airstrikes on Taliban positions, in the Zerkoh Valley of Herat province on Sunday.
Another 49 suspected Taliban were killed two days earlier by a combination of gunfire and an airstrike....
"Suspected?" But we really don't know, do we?
They are ALL Taliban, aren't they?
The bloodshed enraged locals. About 500 people gathered in front of the police station and government headquarters in the nearby town of Shindand on Monday, claiming the dead were civilians and chanting, "The Americans are killing us. We are innocent!"
What we REALLY, REALLY, REALLY need to do at this point is APOLOGIZE PROFUSELY to these people, and then DO WHATEVER THEY WANT US TO DO!
Some of the protesters were armed and opened fire on the government offices, breaking windows, before the crowd dispersed.
The fighting appeared to be the bloodiest in the west since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001. It was also the deadliest nationwide since NATO said it killed about 150 suspected Taliban crossing from Pakistan in January."
But things are always getting better in Afghanistan!
