KABUL, Afghanistan - "U.S.-led coalition forces killed about 80 Taliban fighters during a six-hour battle outside a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan, the latest in a series of increasingly bloody engagements in the region, officials said Sunday."

"About" 80. In past reports those have been wild-eyed guesses which included old men, old women, children, and infants. They bomb cities and villages, then pick a number. The truth? Who knows? But for certain we don't.

"Petraeus: Al-Qaida threat 'significantly reduced'." But mafia-like criminals pose new problems in Iraq, U.S. commander says."

Earlier, "generals to advocate a declaration of victory", and so on. Detect a difference between these folk?

"The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq."

Arf