From the Globe:
Kandahar, Afghanistan — A horrific suicide attack Friday claimed the life of another Canadian soldier in Afghanistan.
The soldier died when the suicide bomber plowed his explosives-laden vehicle into a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.
Witnesses said there was a giant blast from the bomb, followed by a huge fire. It took several hours to extract the dead soldier's body from the burned vehicle.
This is the 7th in nine days.
But we have apparently taken out a "key" local Taliban leader. Nobody you've ever heard of, though. And:
A dozen Taliban fighters were also reported killed and nine wounded in a day of battles in Shekh Qalandar village, said Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar.
I have no idea whether the Taliban body counts given out by NATO or the Afghan government can be trusted. However, it occurs to me that, if you look at the "kill figures" that get tossed around next door in Iraq, and estimates of the insurgency's total size, then each insurgent has been killed about five times over.
So, unfortunately, you only know its 100% true when one of the good guys gets killed.
Mother lashes out at Taliban at slain son's funeral
ReplyDeleteCBC News
The mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan angrily condemned the Taliban on Saturday, as the remains of another fallen Canadian soldier were flown home.
"Their hearts have been deadened, their minds and thoughts twisted, their vision clouded and their hearing deafened," Angela Reid told about 300 mourners at the funeral for her son, Cpl. Christopher Reid, in Truro, N.S.
She then urged the people of Afghanistan to work with the NATO-led coalition forces, prompting a standing ovation from the gathering.