It must have been a slow news day for this to have made it to the AP front page.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A militant ambush of an opium poppy eradication force sparked clashes that left 25 Taliban fighters and a policeman dead, a provincial police chief said Thursday. Four other militants died when a bomb went off.
For those that don’t know: springing an ambush on a convoy and getting your ass kicked is a sign that the people in charge have no idea and that your fighters don’t either.
Police attacked the militants afterward, killing 25 Taliban fighters, including a senior regional militant commander, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The next Taliban that takes command will be less trained and less skillful than the one the Afghan Police just greased. The theory i s that if you can keep the population on your side and prevent outside support that eventually such attrition will severely reduce an insurgency.
Menawhile a splodey-dope update from the same AP report:
Separately, four militants died and another was wounded Thursday when the roadside bomb they were planting on a main road in Helmand exploded prematurely, Andiwal said. Militants regularly target Afghan and foreign troops with roadside bombs, though many civilians are killed by the blasts.
Jihadi workplace safety is a bitch.
[...] and the Taliban, who have gotten their asses kicked from one side of the country to the other is puffing out their chest a bit: [...]