“Last year, during my visit to Washington, in a very important briefing a day before I met U.S. President [Barack Obama], his national security adviser Tom Donilon, and senior White House officials, generals, and intelligence officials, the national security adviser met with me. He told me: ‘The Taliban are not our enemies and we don’t want to fight them.’” — Hamid Karzai, November 26, 2013
Obama and Karzai seem to have forgotten to inform the Taliban that they’re not the enemy and need not fight.
“Taliban attack on checkpoints leaves 21 Afghan soldiers dead,” by Rahim Faiez for The Associated Press, February 23 (thanks to Kenneth):
KABUL – Hundreds of heavily armed Taliban insurgents attacked army checkpoints in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, killing 21 soldiers in the deadliest single incident for the Afghan army in at least a year.
In response to the assault — which also left several Afghan soldiers missing — President Hamid Karzai postponed a planned trip to Sri Lanka.
Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, who is spokesman for the Defence Ministry, said “hundreds” of foreign and Afghan insurgents crossed the border to mount the attack, which took place in the remote and mountainous Ghazi Abad district of Kunar Province in the early morning hours.
Azimi did not specify which border, but Kunar lies next to Pakistan. It’s a militant stronghold, and many Arab and other foreign insurgents are believed to operate there alongside the Afghan Taliban.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack in an emailed statement, saying that one of their insurgents was killed and two were wounded….