Stories from 2002-03-22

"Thursday's fighting marked the latest in a series of deadly skirmishes between Philippine forces and the Abu Sayyaf. With four rebels dead in fighting earlier this week and an unknown number killed in heavy fighting last Friday, the results of Thursday's encounter make it an especially costly week for the extremist guerrilla group." [more]

"The former commander of Nato forces in Europe fears that America, Britain and their allies could become embroiled in an unwinnable guerrilla war in Afghanistan." [more]

"So what did happen to the al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in Shah-i-Kot? One report claimed that 'the absence ofÖany sign of the enemy, dead or alive, raised suspicions that many fighters had escaped before the offensive had begun [on 1 March]' (32). So those 3250 bombs might have been dropped on largely uninhabited territory that may have been vacated by the enemy two weeks previously? That wouldn't be a first for the Americans, who spent much of January bombing caves in the Zhawar Kili region of southern Afghanistan, even though most al-Qaeda members had left, in an attempt to 'destroy al-Qaeda's infrastructure'." [more]