Fresh US-led military offensives have completely destroyed a town in Afganistan

Fresh US-led military offensives have completely destroyed a town in southern Afghanistan, as public discontent continues to grow over civilian casualties.
The US-led military alliance says the operation targeted Taliban militants in the violent Kandahar Province. Media reports, however, say most of the victims in Tarok Kolache town were Afghan civilians.
According to the Daily Mail report, the bombing completely erased the town and its surroundings from the map. The British daily has also published images of the town before and after the operation in a bid to show the scale of destruction. The developments come as a recent report says US-led military operations have inflicted over USD 100 million in damages on public property in southern Afghanistan.
Afghans blame foreign troops and their military operations for civilian deaths. The rising number of civilian casualties has increased anti-US sentiments in the troubled region. The Afghan interior ministry has recently said that 2010 has been the deadliest year for civilians since the US-led invasion in 2001. The ministry says more than 2,000 civilians lost their lives in violence across Afghanistan. Civilians have been the main victims of violence in Afghanistan, particularly in the country's troubled southern and eastern provinces, where they are killed by both militant and foreign fire. The surge in violence comes despite the presence of 150,000 foreign troops, which are engaged in the so-called war on terrorism.
Thousands of Afghan nationals residing in Iran have taken to the streets of a northwestern city to decry the “suspicious” anti-Tehran protests in Afghanistan as an “enemy plot.”
Protesters hailed the solidarity between Iran and Afghanistan on Saturday, a Press TV correspondent reported.Shouting slogans like “The enemy's plot is to sow discord” and “Muslims, stay vigilant!” and carrying banners reading “Viva Iran and Afghanistan,” the crowd proceeded through the streets of Mashhad, the capital of Khorasan Razavi Province.One Afghan figure delivering a speech at the event, condemned the latest move as “anti-Islam,” saying, “Those who gathered outside the Iranian Embassy in Kabul and insulted Iranian officials and the Islamic Republic's flag, which bears the pure name of 'Allah,' were provoked and deceived by the global arrogance.