They just got a different tool to use than we do: They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives. That's what they do. And they're good. They get on the TV screens and they get people to ask questions about, well, you know, this, that or the other. I mean, they're able to kind of say to people: Don't come and bother us, because we will kill you. Bush - Joint News Conference with Blair - 28 July '06

Friday, January 27, 2006

Afghanistan: "Brit deployment not a counter terrorism mission" - discuss

yahoo/reuters: Roadside bomb kills two police in Afghanistan

Two policemen were killed and two wounded in Afghanistan when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb on Friday in a restive southern province where British troops will soon be based, police said.The attack happened on a main road in Helmand province. District police chief Haji Zaman blamed Taliban guerrillas.

"This was the work of Afghanistan's enemies," Zaman said, referring to the Taliban who have ben battling U.S. and government forces since they were ousted in late 2001.

Britain announced on Thursday 3,300 new troops for Afghanistan, saying that would bring its total there to 5,700 after it takes over command of a NATO peacekeeping mission in May.

The new troops include a so-called Provincial Reconstruction Team, which aims to establish security for development, in Helmand, one of the areas of the south and east plagued by violence.

Dozens of people, most of them civilians, have been killed in a wave of attacks across Afghanistan's south and east in recent months, including 13 suicide bombings. Read more

db: Yesterday Reid told a supportive parliament that the Brit deployment "is not a 'counter terrorism' mission". We are still trying to work that one out. He also talks of a three year mission. See Afghanistan likely to need foreign troops for five to ten years: Karzai