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Taliban say Petraeus killing more civilians

WASHINGTON: The Taliban accused US General David Petraeus of killing more civilians and drawing more attacks on US and NATO troops since he took command in Afghanistan, the SITE monitoring group said on Thursday. Petraeus’ “only accomplishment” since he took over US and NATO troop command three weeks ago “is civilian casualties and mass murder, which has to be considered his new war strategy and tactics,” the Afghan Taliban said on their website, as quoted by SITE. The website claimed that “90 non-combatant, defenseless civilians have been martyred in the US invaders’ blind bombardments” across Afghanistan over the past two weeks, adding that such actions only “create growing resentment” by Afghans against foreign troops. US forces have increased attacks with unmanned drone aircraft in Afghanistan since US President Barack Obama came to office a year and a half ago. The Taliban also said attacks “of every type on US invading forces have reached record levels since Petraeus took charge”. Lack of morale among US troops left Petraeus with no other alternative “but to resort to carrying out his vicious and wicked war plans and tactics, which are only causing further civilian casualties and mass murder over and over again”. The Taliban said the “capture and handover by ordinary people” of two US soldiers last week in eastern Logar province was “a clear evidence of the Afghan masses’ strong hatred towards US invaders”. Two US sailors went missing in Logar province on July 23. Their bodies were found later after the Taliban claimed they ambushed the pair, killing one and taking the other captive. The Taliban said the continued presence of the US forces in Afghanistan, under the circumstances, “is the same as digging one’s own grave”. Petraeus took over command of more than 140,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan on July 4 from General Stanley McChrystal, who was removed last month after he and his aides showed disdain for administration officials. afp

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