Saddam is the enemy. Repeat: Saddam is the enemy. Pay no attention to this:

Up to 600 US-backed Afghan troops continued to battle suspected Taliban fighters in southern Kandahar province bordering Pakistan, a local commander and deputy governor said.

"The fighting started around 5:00 pm (1230 GMT) yesterday when a truck of our police was passing (Qisi village) and came under attack," Kandahar divisional commander Khan Mohammad told AFP.

One policeman was killed and the police returned fire before reinforcements arrived.

"We sent 300-400 soldiers from Kandahar and 100-200 soldiers from Spin Boldak," he said

"The war was going on until late afternoon, then we encircled the group of Taliban completely but they took advantage of the dark and managed to escape," he said.

"Today (Wednesday) we followed and surrounded them at 4:00 pm and they are now under seige," the commander said....

--Agence France-Presse