Word: taliban
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Afghanistan are yet vague. However, the attack has potentially deep military consequences as well as political ramifications far away - in Germany. NATO said in a statement that Friday's airstrike targeted militants who had stolen two fuel tankers the day before. It said that most of those killed were Taliban. But Afghan authorities are saying that civilians who had flocked to collect free fuel at the behest of insurgents died among them - with an overall death toll estimated as high as 70. If true, it would be one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander...
...that has grown more vital in light of threats to the normal route from Pakistan. Indeed, given that the tankers were just three miles from the German heaquarters when attacked, officials believe militants might have been readying to bomb the base. The circumstances of the attack thus highlight a Taliban offensive in the region that is brazenly challenging the resolve of German forces in charge of security - and a debate about the lack of consistency among the multinational coalition forces. (Read about the dramatic Sept. 2 assassination that was the Taliban...
Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Kunduz province and the region around it had stayed relatively quiet. A German Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) based just outside the eponymous provincial capital coordinated development efforts, building roads and bridges to upgrade infrastructure shattered by the war. The nature of their mission was reflected in rules of engagement: German troops were prohibited from shooting first. (See pictures from a battle in Afghanistan's Kunar province...
...attack them in the districts they now control or contest. More ominously, police in the area say that among the militant ranks are groups of foreign fighters - mostly from Uzbekistan - seeking to open another front against the coalition and the Kabul government, drawing forces away from fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan...
...pickup trucks and demand money and food villagers. But, says local resident Abdul Matin, 28, the militants simply filtered back into the area when the Germans returned to base and police are nowhere in sight. The insurgent efforts accelerated ahead of the Aug. 20 presidential elections, which the Taliban had vowed to disrupt. President Hamid Karzai's running mate, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, was nearly assassinated in late July while traveling through Kunduz province. Rockets were fired into the city of Kunduz on the day of the vote, though no one was killed. Less than a week later, the head...