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August 28, 2012

Scores Killed in Taliban Attacks in Afghanistan 
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In Afghanistan, the Taliban has been accused of beheading 17 people in
northeast Helmand Province. The killings reportedly resulted either from
the victims' attendance at a risqué party or as a punishment for being
government informants. In a separate attack, Taliban fighters killed 10
Afghan soldiers. A rogue Afghan soldier also killed two U.S. troops, the
latest in a string of attacks by members of the Afghan forces on the
NATO occupation. NATO spokesperson Guntar Katz said about a quarter of
such attacks can be traced back to the Taliban.

Gunter Katz: "We can clearly identify a direct insurgent connection to
the attacker in about 10 percent of the cases. In other 15 percent of
the cases, we suspect an insurgent link with the attacker; however the
tie cannot be definitively proven. Given these two points, our
conclusion is that about 25 percent of these attacks are in some manner
related to the insurgency."

 

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