Taliban claim killing thousands of NATO troops in 2008

Taliban in Afghanistan have claimed killing more than 5000 foreign soldiers during the past year. In a statement published on the Taliban web-site "Da Jihad Ghag" or The voice of Jihad [holy war], the Taliban said they had killed 5220 foreign soldiers during the year 2008. The Taliban claim could not be verified from any independent source. According to unofficial figures and the figures revealed by the ISAF and US forces press offices from time to time to media outlets, the number of casualties among foreign troops during the past year did not exceed 500. The warring groups in Afghanistan - The NATO, Taliban and the Afghanistan government - usually make louder claims about incuring large number of casualties on the opponents while trying to hide their own to get psychological edge over their rivals. More than 50,000 US and NATO troops are presently stationed in Afghanistan to ensure peace in the war-battered country. The US troops are mainly stationed in the eastern and south eastern zone while the NATO-led ISAF troops are based in the southern and northern provinces of the country. Afghanistan has 34 provinces. Its southern zone consisting of the provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul, Helmand and Ghazni provinces is considered the most volatile zone. The northern, western and central zones are comparatively peaceful while the eastern and southeastern zones also have some degree of trouble. The Taliban statement further claimed that 7552 police and Afghan army soldiers had also been killed during the past year. It said that 2818 military vehicles, belonging to the foreign and Afghan forces had also been destroyed. In a stunning revelation, the Taliban said they had shot down 31 various aircrafts during the past one year. The statement said it was the Taliban fact sheet about the damages to the foreign and Afghan troops in one year. The statement said the US and NATO troops were trying to hide those "facts" from the local and foreign media. "These are the facts that the enemy always tries to conceal, and with money and power gagged the mouths of the media, and cast dust in the eyes of the international society," said the statement.