Why wait six to nine months?
Top US general in Afghanistan sees major Taliban attacks in coming months
Agence France Presse English 04-16-2005
Commander of the US forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Barno said the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are likely to stage high-profile attacks in Afghanistan as the country approachs its first post-Taliban parliamentary elections.
The Taliban and Al-Qaeda will likely stage high-profile attacks in Afghanistan as the country approaches its first post-Taliban parliamentary election, the top commander of US forces in the country said.
Lieutenant General David Barno said militants would look to score a "propaganda victory" by staging attacks aimed at generating significant media coverage.
"Terrorists here in Afghanistan want to reassert themselves and I expect that they will be looking here in the next six to nine months or so to stage some type of high profile attack to score media publicity," Barno told reporters in Kabul. <...>
Prensa Latina (Cuba) Taliban Rebels Blast Trucks Carrying Oil for US Troops Apr 17 2005 http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={4E7C2B12-FF3F-4D8D-A993-E0C3BB815821}&language=EN
Kabul, Apr 17 (Prensa Latina) Taliban rebels planted a bomb that destroyed five trucks in Kandahar City carrying oil for the US troops in Afghanistan, leaving three drivers wounded, a senior Afghan army official informed.
The early-morning attack destroyed one of the trucks parked outside Kandahar airbase, a key US military base in southern Afghanistan, and set four others on fire, said General Muslim Hamid army corps commander for Kandahar province.
"Three drivers of the tank trucks have been critically wounded in the incident," he said, adding the three were from neighboring Pakistan.
The attack on the oil tankers came a day after the Taliban triggered a remote-control bomb that injured nine Afghan government soldiers in a moving car in Zabul province, according to district chief Wazir Mohammad.
Members of the radical group killed in an ambush three Pakistani truck drivers carrying supplies for the U.S. military in Kandahar on April 1.
The rebels have rejected reports they are in reconciliation talks with the Afghan government and said they were training suicide bombers to target government officials, foreign forces and aid workers. <...>
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