About five months ago the Taliban announced to the world that they were ready to bring the fight to the Coalition forces:
A purported statement released Thursday by Taliban leader Mullah Omar claimed that large numbers of Afghans were signing up as suicide bombers and that an offensive in the next few months would cause many casualties among foreign and Afghan troops.
The statement was telephoned to Associated Press reporters in Kandahar and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, by purported Taliban spokesman Mohammed Hanif and was then subsequently received by e-mail from an unidentified sender.
The two-page typed statement ended with a signature supposedly by the fugitive rebel leader. The former Taliban ambassador to Islamabad, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said that it resembled Omar’s.
“Young Afghans are coming to mujahedeen camps in large numbers to enrol their names for suicide attacks,” the statement said.
“This year, with the beginning of summer, Afghan soil will turn red for the crusaders and their puppets and the occupiers will face an unpredictable wave of Afghan resistance.”
I don’t know about you but I don’t think it’s going as planned:
Warplanes and artillery pounded Taliban fighters hiding in orchards Sunday during a big Afghan NATO offensive that the alliance said killed more than 200 militants in its first two days. Four Canadian soldiers also were killed.
If the estimate is confirmed, the battle would be one of the deadliest since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime five years ago. Reporters could not reach all the combat zone because officials barred traffic from all but one road in this part of southern Kandahar province.
[…]Operation Medusa was launched Saturday to flush out Taliban fighters from Panjwayi and neighboring Zhari district. NATO spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy said alliance and Afghan troops had gained ground and disrupted the militants’ command system so guerrillas were moving in confusion.
Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said Taliban casualties were high, but could not confirm the NATO report of more than 200 dead.
A NATO statement said its figure was derived from “surveillance and reconnaissance assets operating in Panjwayi and Zhari districts, as well as information reported by various Afghan officials and citizens living nearby.”
About 80 other suspected Taliban were arrested by Afghan police and a further 180 fled the area, it said.
And the Canadian soldiers, along with the Afghan army are involved in most of the ass kicking….go Canada!
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