Editor's Note:

In previous reports, many civilians were killed in NATO-led attacks despite claims of killing only Taliban fighters.

Two NATO soldiers, eight Taliban fighters killed in Afghanistan

DPA (Earth Times) Tuesday, 07 Apr 2009, 10:23:55 GMT

Kabul -

Two NATO-led soldiers were killed in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, while eight Taliban fighters were killed by Afghan and US-led coalition forces elsewhere in the country, officials said Tuesday. In the latest attack, a NATO soldier was killed and three were wounded in a roadside bomb attack in the southern region on Tuesday, the alliance said in a statement.

The statement did not disclose the nationality of the deceased soldier, citing the policy of the organization that does not reveal the nationality of a victim prior to the relevant national authority doing so.

The second fatality was a Dutch soldier, who was killed and another five of his comrades and two Afghan security forces were wounded when a Dutch military base in the southern province of Uruzgan was hit by two 107-millimetre missiles on Monday.

In Amsterdam, Dutch Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop on Tuesday confirmed the death of the Dutch soldier.

He said Azdin Chadli, 20, died when the missiles hit Camp Holland, the Dutch military base. Five other Dutch soldiers between the ages of 19 to 24 sustained injuries, but were reportedly in "stable" condition.

Some 1,200 Dutch troops are stationed in Uruzgan as part of a 60,000-strong International Security and Assistance Forces (ISAF) troop deployment to Afghanistan from 42 nations. The Dutch mission is due to end by August 2010.

In the northern province of Kunduz, Taliban fighters attacked a police post in Qala Zal district on Monday night, but their assault was repulsed by the police forces, leaving two militants dead, Abdul Rahman Aqtaash, deputy provincial police chief, said.

He said one body was left behind near the site of the clash and police identified him as a rebel commander who was responsible for Taliban military operations in the area. The Taliban fighters took away the other dead body as they fled the area, he said.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, confirmed that one Taliban fighters was killed in the attack, but he said that the dead man was an ordinary Taliban fighter.

Kunduz province is the main hub for Taliban insurgents in the relatively peaceful northern region. The militants are said to have bases in the province and often launch attacks on the NATO-led German forces in the area.

The fighters fired two rockets at the Kunduz airport 20 minutes after German Chancellor Angela Merkel left the province. The missiles landed outside the perimeter fence and caused no casualties or damage.

But the Taliban fighters claimed that the rockets were fired as the plane carrying Merkel was landing on the tarmac.

Merkel was on a two-day visit of the northern region of the country, where 3,800 German soldiers are stationed. Three attacks on German soldiers occurred near the Kunduz base shortly before Merkel's visit, but caused no casualties.

Meanwhile, in the volatile southern region, Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed six Taliban fighters in two separate operations, the US military said in statements.

Four fighters were killed and two were detained in an operation in Maiwand district of southern Kandahar province on Monday, while on the same day two more fighters were killed in the neighbouring Helmand province, the military said.

Envoy laments weak US knowledge about Taliban

By ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writer Robert Burns

 Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 3:11 pm ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –

U.S. intelligence about the makeup and recruiting power of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan is so shallow that it impedes the U.S. war effort, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region said Tuesday.

"I am deeply, deeply dissatisfied with the degree of knowledge that the United States government and our friends and allies have on this subject," veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke told reporters during a break in daylong talks with Pakistan government officials and private citizens.

Holbrooke and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen were in the Pakistani capital on the second leg of a three-nation trip to south Asia. The emissaries were conducting the first face-to-face consultations in the region since Obama publicly outlined his strategy for turning around the stalled war effort in Afghanistan and defeating al-Qaida in Pakistan.

Holbrooke blamed the shortcoming partly on the intense U.S. intelligence focus on Iraq over the past six years. Another factor, he said, was the high priority placed on gathering intelligence about al-Qaida in the years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

He did not mention another contributing factor: the smaller U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, relative to Iraq, which makes it more difficult to gather detailed and current information about a shadowy adversary adept at hiding and adapting.

The lack of depth in U.S. understanding of the Taliban, which has mounted attacks both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, has weakened efforts to counter the propaganda they use to recruit new fighters and to discredit the U.S., Holbrooke added.

"We need to make sure we know what the appeal of the Taliban is," Holbrooke said.

Holbrooke said that would be critical in enabling the U.S. and its allies to split the hard-core Taliban leaders, who must be dealt with militarily, from less ideologically driven fighters who might be co-opted.

Holbrooke said there are indications that "well over half" of the Taliban are not committed to the radical Islamic ideology.

Reconciling moderate Taliban elements with the Afghan government and isolating the hard-liners is a key element in the new U.S. approach to Afghanistan. Another is improving the U.S. counter-propaganda operation in Afghanistan, which Holbrooke said would be "one of the most important things we do" in the months ahead

The information deficit in Afghanistan has been recognized by some U.S. intelligence managers.

"We know a heck of a lot more about Iraq on a very granular basis than we do about Afghanistan," the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, said March 26. "We need to ramp up a level of intelligence support in Afghanistan, and that will be a lot more than just making sure the villages are on the maps."

A CIA spokesman declined to comment Tuesday on Holbrooke's remarks.

Holbrooke said the U.S. would "concentrate on that issue, partly through the intelligence structure" and partly through private aid groups that provide humanitarian and other services in Afghanistan. He estimated that 90 percent of U.S. knowledge about Afghanistan lies with aid groups.

Frequently, in meetings with Afghans as well as Pakistanis, Holbrooke posed simple questions: Who are the Taliban? Why do people join them?

He seemed less than satisfied with the answers he got.

At a meeting Monday in Kabul with senior Afghan religious authorities, one mullah told Holbrooke and Mullen that he had once been a Taliban member. After the session, Holbrooke buttonholed the man and asked if he would explain what caused him to break with the radicals. The mullah demurred, saying it was a long story.

The Taliban movement took control of Afghanistan in 1996 and ruled with harsh enforcement of Islamic fundamentalist law. It also provided haven for Osama bin Laden, who ran training camps for al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan until U.S. forces invaded following the 9/11 attacks.

Bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders moved into the mountainous reaches of the Afghan-Pakistan frontier and, for a period, the Taliban receded.

But over the past three years a resurgent Taliban has taken control of small portions of the country and adapted new means of attacking both Afghan security forces and civilian targets, especially in the south.

Mullen and Holbrooke on Tuesday addressed two other intelligence-related priorities. They aim to encourage the intelligence services of Afghanistan and Pakistan to work together. And they want to press the Pakistani government to sever the support that its intelligence arm, the Inter-Services Intelligence, has provided over the years to the Taliban.

Mullen conceded both issues will take a long time to resolve.

Holbrooke and Mullen spent Sunday and Monday in Afghanistan. After their Islamabad talks Tuesday, they flew to New Delhi for further meetings Wednesday.

Comment on the News:

This sounds like a Bush administration language, not an Obama promise of change.

What Islamic ideology?

There are no Islamic scholars among Taliban fighters. There are no religious arguments.

Simply, it is a national liberation movement. They are fighting to liberate their country from the NATO forces' invasion and occupation, just like what the Vietnamese did and all invaded nations before them: Koreans, Algerians, French, and other European nations during the German occupation during World War II.

The Taliban recruiting appeal is liberating Afghanistan from the foreign NATO invaders. Period.

How to deal with it?

President Obama and Holbrooke need to announce that the United States intends to leave Afghanistan in few years. A timetable is necessary, just like what happened in Iraq.

Propaganda has proved to be a failing tactic. US-Operated Al-Hurra TV is a testimony of that.

Just end US wars, close all military bases abroad, bring our soldiers back home, and save the United States from the continuous financial disaster, which was caused by the trillions of dollars borrowed to spend on wars and militarization.