US & Afghan forces kill 8 Taliban(US says helo made precautionary landing)

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5697884&cKey=1113900669000

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. and Afghan forces killed eight suspected Taliban guerrillas and captured 16 to thwart an ambush in the southern province of Zabul, a defence ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. snip

He said several civilians were killed and 15 government soldiers wounded in the fighting. He also said his men had shot down a U.S.military helicopter.

"The wreckage of the chopper is still there," he told Reuters by satellite telephone, adding that those captured by U.S.-led forces were civilians, not Taliban fighters.

A U.S. military spokeswoman said a helicopter had made a "precautionary landing" in the area of the fighting but had later returned to base.

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[acmavm]

1. We lost a helicopter (maybe), captured some civilians (not Taliban

fighters), killed some more civilians (maybe), and a bunch of government (?) soldiers had been killed.

It all depends on who's story you believe over there. And the saddest saddest thing is that we can't trust our own government to tell us the truth. In fact, odds are that they aren't.

What I can't figure out is who's running that place. Karzai isn't. I'm sure things are a hell of a lot more out of control than anyone's been telling us. Does anyone know how many troops have been lost in Afganistan? I don't have a clue. How many decades do we plan to be there? I haven't heard any word on that either.

I bet the Russians are having a good laugh at the mess we've gotten ourselves into.