Taliban losing in Afghanistan

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.