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Dead in Afghanistan: Will Any High Value Targets Be Among Them?
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ShareMarch 05, 2007 2:17 PM
Efforts are now underway to identify the dead following a U.S. and NATO strike in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan over the weekend, according to Afghan officials.
ABC News reported a major strike may have targeted a high-value al Qaeda target in the village of Mano Gai in Kunar province.
The U.S. military on the ground in Afghanistan continues to officially deny there was anything other than "routine military operations" in the eastern province over the past three days.
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But U.S. and Afghan government officials said over the weekend that an operation was taking place. They declined to identify who the operation was targeting but indicated they were after a "High Value Target" (HVT).
Official sources would not rule out that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden himself was the intended target. Afghan officials said the target could be another senior ranking al Qaeda leader.
Eyewitnesses to the bombing and follow-up ground assault on the compound in Mano Gai, near the border with Pakistan, said two or three massive bombs were dropped on the compound. They described scenes of fierce hand-to-hand combat between the ANA (Afghan National Army) and enemy combatants holed up inside the compound.
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Afghan officials, who did not want to be identified, said the strike targeted a mix of foreign and Afghan militants loyal to al Qaeda and Hizbi Islami, or HIG, the extremist group headed by former fundamentalist prime minister Gulbuddhin Hecmatyar.
They say the compound belonged to a commander named Haji Aminullah, a HIG commander heavily tied to smuggling gems, timber and opium from the lawless Pesh Valley region of Kunar.
March 5, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (9)
It seems a little odd to me that we would have Afghan Army troops conduct a raid on an HVT site.
If we did, shame on the mlitary leaders who made that call for not learning from past mistakes. We likely lost OBL at Tora Bora because we did not do the job ourselves.
Posted by: Brian | Mar 5, 2007 4:56:32 PM
Brian read the story "two or three massive bombs were dropped on the compound." Must have been Afgan B-1's or F-117's with Afgan troops on the ground with the laser designaters to guide the bombs, heh? Joint efforts are why we succeed where the Russians and the Brit's failed in Afganistan.
Posted by: Bobbb | Mar 5, 2007 8:42:08 PM
If we really used Afghan troops for this HVT strike, then I strongly suspect it was a bogus strike (without their knowlesge). It was probably solely for the purpose of distracting attention from the REAL strike somewhere else, knowing that the details would leak out well in advance.
Posted by: beez | Mar 5, 2007 9:06:25 PM
Can't you see that this is all a sham, Brian? Do you think the US could find the guy (OBL) if they really wanted him that badly? I certainly do.
They could roll in almost 200K troops to plow over an entire country and drag Saddam out of a hole in the ground.
They've obviously chosen not to apply the same level of determination in regards to capturing OBL. The guy is a dream come true to the current government and its future heirs. He'll be around for quite some time.
Posted by: David | Mar 5, 2007 11:50:37 PM
Your only interested in reporting who has been targeted but when it is Afghan civillians, you don't care coz there lives seem worth nothing to all Americans
Posted by: Kiymba | Mar 6, 2007 7:52:58 AM
We found Saddam when an Iraqi citizen tipped us off. It is unlikely we will find OBL unless or until we have similar help from Pakistani locals.
Posted by: Erik | Mar 6, 2007 2:58:28 PM
I believe hardly anything in the media anymore, particularly war reports. You've see, haven't you, the recently released BBC video of live broadcast on 9-11 declaring that WTC bldg. 7 has collapsed, 20 minutes BEFORE it "collapsed", with the building pictured behind the reporter reporting it??
Posted by: greg | Mar 6, 2007 5:08:42 PM
Actually,
Republican news of France reported on Mar 6, 2007 From France, Adm. ie Chirac, through Saudi Arabia, that OBL recently died of Typhoid. It seems USA media want more verification first though.
Posted by: yvonne | Mar 7, 2007 3:06:15 PM
For OBL to die of typhoid or any other disease hiding in some cave or primitive viliage would be a success for the Bush administration. The main stream media CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC are so obsessed with the Idea that Bush can do nothing correct, that admitting that OBL is dead is unthinkable. They will have to wait until some Democrate is elected to proclaim that OBL is dead and thet the new presidient who had been in office one day gets all the credit.
Posted by: Robert Jewett | Mar 14, 2007 9:53:46 PM
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