The brave new world.

An article about the war in Afghanistan in the on-line edition of Guardian introduced a new term that caused me shivers:

In one of the most intense assaults since 2001, the Taliban attacked a village in Helmand province on Wednesday night, using suicide bombs and firearms.

It is true that Taliban and its likes got close to the goal of fully dehumanizing the candidates for martyrdom. Does it follow from here that the western mass media can treat these people the same way?

I hope this is a genuine mistake. But since the article is signed by "staff and agencies" there is no one to address the issue to. Fairly dehumanizing practice that, methinks...