US-led coalition: Taliban plan spate of attacks

[unhappycamper]

US-led coalition: Taliban plan spate of attacks
By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press
Posted on Friday, 04.29.11

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan insurgents plan to stage a spate of violent attacks across Afghanistan in the next several days in a display power as spring fighting accelerates, senior officers with the U.S.-led coalition said Friday.

U.S. military officials have long predicted a violent spring, but credible intelligence picked up in the past few days indicates that the Taliban - aided by the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network - have plans to conduct a brief series of high-profile attacks, such as suicide bombings, the officers said.

The officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said most action was expected in the east because the harvest of opium poppies, which bankrolls the insurgency, is still under way in the south and southwest.

They said the coalition made the assessment in the past couple of days after analyzing a wide body of credible and specific human intelligence and intercepted communications, information from interrogations of captured insurgents and in collaboration with Afghan officials.

"They want to demonstrate their relevance to regain momentum," said Lt. Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the coalition. "We see this as a propaganda ploy. They want to demonstrate that they are relevant despite recent setbacks."



unhappycamper comment: Ahhhh. So now the official line is 'the harvest of opium poppies ... bankrolls the insurgency'.

[TransitJohn]

1. The Taliban. For fucks' sakes.

I cannot believe that people buy this horseshit. This is like the most powerful military force ever conceived of or assembled by humankind waging war against the State of Wyoming, taking 10 years to do it, and not fucking doing it. How can anyone believe we aren't waging war for profit???