January 17, 2011 - San Francisco, CA - Iran's Despite the Obama administration's insistence that the Taliban is a serious negotiating partner, thus establishing a basis for the group's embassy type arrangement with Qatar, the terrorist group is apparently is stepping up attacks against U.S. interests in Afghanistan.
According to Iran's Press TV, today an attack took place at a U.S. military base located in Jalalabad, where a car bomb claimed the life of at least one individual. [see, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/221519.html].
Additionally, the Washington Post is reporting that an anti-Taliban cleric was gunned down today while he prayed in a Khandahar mosque, "insurgents entered the mosque Tuesday morning and shot Mohammad Nahim Agha Mama as he worshipped, the Kandahar provincial governor's office said in a statement. A Pashtun tribal leader and local council member of the province's Dand district, Nahim was well known in the province for urging his followers not to join the Taliban." [source, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/avalanches-kill-14-in-afghanistan-karzai-urges-taliban-to-allow-polio-vaccine-teams/2012/01/17/gIQA3eet4P_story.html]
A week ago Taliban fighters attacked a government building in Sharan, Eastern Afghanistan killing many in the ensuing firefight. [see, http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Suicide-attack-at-government-building-in-2459425.php]
The above events all cast doubt as to the wisdom of Team Obama's plan to use "negotiations" with an apparently recalcitrant Taliban to extricate itself from Afghanistan on any sort of a favorable basis as the 2012 campaign proceeds.
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