WHILE OBAMA AND MCCHRYSTAL SQUABBLE, 14 SOLDIERS ARE KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN

The newspapers and TV will be filled with what President Obama decides to do with wayward Gen. Stanley McChrystal, but few if any of the media will mention that in the past two days 14 NATO troops have been killed in Afghanistan.

NATO toll in Afghanistan rises to 14 in two days
1 hr 1 min ago
http://news.yahoo.com/topics/afghanistan

KABUL (AFP) – Four NATO soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan, bringing to 14 the number to have died in two days in the war-torn country, the military said.

Two soldiers were killed in bomb attacks, another in a small arms attack and the fourth in another insurgent attack. The deaths all occurred on Tuesday.

London announced that one of the soldiers was British.

The latest deaths brought to 69 the number of NATO troops to have died so far this month and 289 this year, according to an AFP tally based on the independent icasualties.org website.

Ten NATO troops were killed in attacks and a helicopter crash on Monday -- the second time this month that 10 service members were killed in a single day.

Much of southern Afghanistan is blighted by the Taliban insurgency, now in its deadliest phase since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the hardline Islamist regime and installed a Western-backed administration led by Hamid Karzai.

The US military has warned that casualties will inevitably mount as foreign forces build up their campaign to oust the militants from the southern province of Kandahar, a hotbed of bombings, assassinations and lawlessness.