65 Taliban killed in Afghan action

AP/NY Times:

Afghan and coalition forces killed about 65 militants in two gunbattles in southern Afghanistan, the military said Saturday.

On Friday, troops came under fire from about 40 insurgents near the village of Mirabad northeast of the capital in southern Uruzgan province, the military said in a statement.

Most of the militants, who were firing from hidden positions in an orchard, ridgeline and compound near Mirabad, were believed killed, the coalition said.

No coalition or civilian injuries were reported.

...

Another one sided battle with the Taliban on the short end. At some point the Taliban and the media will have to recognize that they are losing, It will be difficult for the Taliban to sustain these losses indefinitely. The only upside for the Taliban is their logistics becomes easier since they have fewer people to feed.

Reuters reports the Taliban KIA's at 70 and gives a total of 100 Taliban KIA's in the past three days.

A clash erupted on Friday after about 40 Taliban fighters attacked coalition forces in the Tarin Kot district of the southern province of Uruzgan.

"They all were killed," Soldier Chris Miller, a spokesman for the coalition forces, told Reuters of the Taliban casualties.

In another incident, coalition and Afghan forces attacked "a large group of extremists" in the Zharie district of neighboring Kandahar province, killing 25 rebels in a battle that lasted three hours, a U.S. military statement said.

Four more rebels were killed in a firefight with a coalition patrol in Kandahar on Friday night, Major Quentin Innes, a coalition spokesman, said.

...

What is remarkable is that a 40 man Taliban unit initiates anattack and gets wiped out. That shows a remarkable absence of situational awareness and intelligence of both a military and personal nature. The Taliban leadership is remarkable inept. It shows none of the flare of the Iraqi insurgency in avoiding battle and destruction. Instead it seems eager to give battle in situations that are not favorable to its forces. It will be difficult for it to sustain these losses. At some point this is should effect recruiting, assuming recruits are rational, which is not always a valid assumption when dealing with Islamic bigots. Still the supply of people willing to rally to a hopeless cause should be limited.