A few interesting lines popped up in Taliban statements this week. In this one alleging 5 American casualties in Kandahar, there was this:
Later on Monday, one of the brave Mujahids of the Islamic Emirate killed five U.S soldiers in Kandahar’s Shawali Kowt district …. However, a statement has been issued by the U.S militay , claiming that their 3 soldiers were killed in an encounter. It is to be noticed that the U.S. military has only confirmed the death of their 10 soldiers since the beginning of the year 2010.
Here, where the Taliban info-machine takes credit for 7 alleged French casualties in Kapisa:
however, the President Nikolas Sarkozy confirmed the death only one French soldier.
A PDF version of these statements in full is also available at Scribd.com here (in case you don’t want the Taliban webmeister to get your IP address information).
Ah, the classic “I know you’re a liar, but what am I?” defense. A few points to note….
1) The French President didn’t have much to say on his official web page, but France’s Minister of Defense confirmed not one, but two fallen – one killed immediately, and the other dying of his wounds shortly after the ambush (links to statements in French). I guess the second memo didn’t get to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid in time for that update of the Voice of Jihad page.
2) We know about the Taliban info-machine’s “statistics management”, so I know whose figures I would trust.
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