August 8, 2006: The Taliban spent the last week fighting the new NATO force deployed along the Pakistani border. Four British and four Canadian troops were killed in combat, along with at least sixty Taliban and over two dozen civilians. The Taliban killed most of the civilians while using suicide bombers to get at NATO troops. The Taliban losses came as large groups of Taliban, moving about to terrorize and coerce the countryside, were found and run down by NATO and Afghan troops. When cornered, most of these Taliban get killed, with the survivors either captured or escaping into the countryside.
The Taliban forces are causing a lot of damage, as they destroy schools and police stations, and drive off or kill teachers and policemen. These are the most common representatives of the government in the countryside. There are also some medical clinics, but there are generally left alone, as long as they treat sick and wounded Taliban.
The Taliban is apparently trying to kill the maximum number of NATO troops, using special weapons, like the suicide bombers, in the hopes that NATO public opinion will shift and cause the NATO combat troops to be withdrawn from the fight. This could work, because of the anti-American attitudes in most NATO countries, and the tendency of the media to run lots of stories, and haul out lots of anti-war pundits, when there are combat deaths.