Size of Afghan-Taliban skirmishes expected to increase in size

This article was written literally as the fight it is reporting is still going on. Afghan and coalition forces are right now in a firefight in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan with Taliban insurgents. The insurgents outnumber the Afghan troops, but the Afghan troops have coalition air support. At the time of this report, ten of the insurgents (out of over 50) have been killed and no Afghan troops have been lost, but the battle is continuing. The insurgents are attacking with machine guns, mortars, RPGs, and grenades.

There are two things I find interesting about this article. The first is that it was so far down on the list of current worldwide events on CNN.com. While I realize that there is a lot going on in the world, I think that something that is happening right now and involving the lives of many should be more publicized news. To me this almost reflects a sort of attitude that we're tired of hearing about all these things because they've been top news for years now, which kind of disheartens me. The second interesting thing about this article is that it does seem a positive step for me. What I mean is that I agree with Capt. Vanessa Bowman, a military spokeswoman, when she said "We should expect more of these types of large-scale engagements as the insurgents start to run out of places to hide". This makes sense to me, because it is the second large scale attack by insurgents on the Afghani army and government in the last week. Such large battles are very rare because this has been a guerilla war since we ousted the Taliban from power six years ago. I think that it is a very positive sign, especially if she is right that these are the final acts of desperation from a fallen regime.