THEY SIMPLY HATE PROGRESS. If it does not involve extremely radical Islamic rule, the Taliban is against it.
President Obama and friends, there is no moderate Taliban, despite your stated interest in negotiating with this imaginary part of the radicalized insurgent group. If a group commits acts such as this attack on USAID while reportedly negotiating truces with their non-radical neighbors in Afghanistan, they are not to be rationalized with. To put it diplomatically. To add to the depravity, they grossly overestimated the number killed, claiming 55, when accounts suggest there were four murdered by them.
A succinct quote, from AP article on the attack, via NPR's site: "This attack shows the insurgents' desire to prevent progress, and draws attention to their true goal of serving themselves rather than the people of Afghanistan." - Navy Capt. Jane Campbell, NATO.
The Taliban's "goal" is what they were doing prior to 2002: controlling and stifling the people of Afghanistan.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128259804&sc=17&f=1001
4 Killed In Attack On USAID Compound In AfghanistanSix suicide bombers stormed a USAID compound in northern Afghanistan before dawn Friday, killing at least four people and wounding several others, officials said. At least two of the dead were foreigners.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which began about 3:30 a.m. in Kunduz when a suicide car bomber blew a hole in the wall around a building used by Development Alternatives Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based global consulting company on contract with the United States Agency for International Aid, or USAID. The company is working on governance and community development in the area.
At least five other attackers then ran inside the building, killing or wounding security guards and others inside before dying in a gunbattle with Afghan security forces who raced to the scene. Afghan authorities said the five were all wearing explosive vests.
Black smoke poured from the windows of the four-story building. The bodies of the victims were found inside amid rubble, pools of blood and broken glass. Stunned aid workers were led from the scene as NATO troops carried bodies wrapped in black plastic out on stretchers.
Gen. Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi, police chief in Kunduz province, said those killed included an Afghan policeman, an Afghan man who worked as a security guard at the house and two foreigners. The German Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press in Berlin that a German citizen was killed in the attack.
"It was 3 o'clock in the morning, close to the morning prayer time, when a suicide bomber in a 4x4 vehicle exploded his vehicle," Yaqoubi said as Afghan national security forces were battling to kill the last surviving attacker. "There is no way for him to escape."
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in Kabul that six suicide bombers attacked a "training center" for Afghan security forces in Kunduz and killed 55 foreigners. The Taliban often exaggerate their claims.
The attack appeared part of a Taliban campaign against development projects at a time when the U.S. and its allies are trying to bolster civilian programs to shore up the Afghan government. On Wednesday, militants rocketed a base for South Korean construction workers in Parwan province but caused no casualties.
In April, a gunman killed an 18-year-old woman working for Development Alternatives as she left her job in the southern city of Kandahar. Police believed the killing was part of a Taliban campaign against Afghans working for foreign development organizations.
"This attack shows the insurgents' desire to prevent progress, and draws attention to their true goal of serving themselves rather than the people of Afghanistan," said Navy Capt. Jane Campbell, a spokesman for NATO, referring to the Kunduz attack.
[Copyright 2010 The Associated Press]
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- jR, aka AirFarceOne (on Twitter)
