Title: War on Terror: Afghanistan
Description: News, updates
Description: News, updates
Switik - July 19, 2004 01:45 AM (GMT)
:fire: A most interesting war story:
Inside the Battle at Qala-I-Jangi
From a ruined 19th century fortress, TIME correspondent Alex Perry records the crushing of a Taliban revolt
By ALEX PERRY
In Afghanistan, nothing is ever what it seems. Including surrender.
On Nov. 24, a bright, warm Saturday, 300 Taliban soldiers who had fled the American bombardment of Kunduz, their last stronghold in the north of Afghanistan, laid down their weapons in the desert a few miles to the north of Mazar-i-Sharif. They surrendered to Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who crowed that his forces had achieved a "great victory" as the pows were herded 50 at a time onto flatbed trucks.
Even by the standards of Afghanistan's warlords, Dostum has an unsavory reputation. In earlier episodes of Afghanistan's wars, he was reputed to have killed those of his soldiers who broke the rules by tying them to the tracks of his tanks. But outside Mazar, his soldiers told their prisoners that Dostum wanted to make a gesture of reconciliation to help unite Afghanistan's warring tribes. Afghan members of the Taliban would be free to return to their homes, while foreigners would be detained before being handed over to the U.N. Dostum didn't search his prisoners; that was a mistake, one he would bitterly regret. "If we had searched them, there would have been a fight," he said Wednesday, surveying hundreds of dismembered, blackened and crushed bodies. "But perhaps it wouldn't have been as bad as this."
The Taliban fighters, many of whom were foreigners, were transported from the field of surrender to a holding site in Qala-i-Jangi, a sprawling 19th century prison fortress to the west of Mazar, where Dostum stabled his horses. The convoy of prisoners had to pass through the city center; two weeks before, the Taliban had ruled the streets. The prisoners now peered out from under their blankets with shell-shocked, bloodshot eyes. The people of Mazar stared back at them with open hatred.
Things went wrong almost immediately. Once inside Qala-i-Jangi, the Taliban soldiers were asked to turn out their pockets. A prisoner, waiting until Alliance commander Nadir Ali was near, suddenly produced a grenade and pulled the pin, killing himself and the commander. In a similar attack the same night, another prisoner killed himself and senior Hazara commander Saeed Asad. The remaining men were led into underground cells to join scores of other captured Taliban fighters. Despite the grenade attacks, the Alliance guards were not reinforced.
Sunday Morning
The next morning, two Americans went to meet the prisoners at Qala-i-Jangi. Their mission at the fortress: to identify any members of al-Qaeda among the prisoners. But the Americans didn't conduct the interviews one by one--another mistake. Instead, at 11:15 a.m., the pair--Johnny Micheal Spann, 32, one of the CIA agents who had been active in Afghanistan since the war's beginning, the other identified by colleagues only as "Dave"--were taken to an open area outside the cells and a group of prisoners brought to meet them. According to members of a German television crew who were later trapped in the fort with Dave, Spann asked the prisoners who they were and why they joined the Taliban. They massed around him. "Why are you here?" Spann asked one. "To kill you," came the reply as the man lunged at Spann's neck. Spann drew his pistol and shot the man dead. Dave shot another, then grabbed an AK-47 from an Alliance guard and opened fire. According to eyewitness accounts given to the German team, the Taliban fighters launched themselves at Spann, scrabbling at his flesh with their hands, kicking and beating him. Spann killed two more with his pistol before he disappeared under the crush. An Alabaman with a wife and three children, Spann became the first American to die in combat in Afghanistan.
The Taliban then overpowered the Alliance guards, killing them with their own weapons. Dave mowed down three more Taliban, then sprinted to the main building along the north wall, where two Red Cross workers had just begun a meeting with the prison governor. "He burst in and told us to get out of there," says Simon Brooks, a Briton and a Red Cross staff member. "He was really shaken up. He said there were 20 dead Northern Alliance guys, and the Taliban were taking control of the fort." As Dave stayed behind to try to rescue Spann, the two Red Cross workers climbed up to the fort's parapet, hoisted themselves over the wall and slid 60 ft. down the other side. Meanwhile, the firing had alerted a pair of TV crews. They too ran to the main building; there they found Dave and were pinned down in the ensuing fire fight.
A few hundred yards to the south, in the prison block, the Taliban freed its comrades. Three escaped through a drain under the southern wall; all were soon shot by Alliance soldiers outside the fort. The Taliban fighters, trapped in the southwestern quarter of the fort, stormed a nearby armory, making off with AK-47s, grenades, mines, rocket launchers, mortars and ammunition. Alliance soldiers held on to the southeastern corner, which included an arched gateway, a courtyard and the gatekeeper's house. Other fighters took positions on the north wall and the roof of the main building. A vicious exchange of fire across the grassy parade ground followed. Two Alliance tanks along the north wall started firing into the Taliban area.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON At 2 p.m. two minivans and a pair of open-sided white Land Rovers mounted with machine guns pulled up outside the fortress gates. From the minivans jumped nine American special-operations men wearing wraparound sunglasses and baseball caps and carrying snub-nosed M-4 automatic rifles. The Land Rovers disgorged six British SAS soldiers armed with M-16s and dressed in jeans, sweaters, Afghan scarves and pakuls, the distinctive woolen hats of the Afghan mujahedin. The Americans and British quickly convened a conference with the Alliance leaders. "I want satcom [satellite communications] and JDAMS [guided munitions]," said the American commander. "Tell them there will be six or seven buildings in a line in the southwest half. If they can hit that, then that would kill a whole lot of these motherf______."
A bearded American in a Harley-Davidson cap and mirrored sunglasses raised Dave on the radio. "@#%$...@#%$...O.K....@#%$...O.K. Hold on, buddy, we're coming to get you," he said. Then, cutting the radio, he turned to his commander: "Mike is MIA. They've taken his gun and his ammo. We have another guy. He managed to kill two of them with his pistol, but he's holed up in the north side with no ammo." As a hurried discussion of tactics began, Harley-Davidson went back to his radio. Then he cut in: "@#%$. Let's stop f___ing around and get in there." Pointing to the sky, he added, "Tell those guys to stop scratching their balls and fly."
Outside the fort, Alliance soldiers began pouring out of the northeast battlements, skidding over the walls and down the ramparts. The wounded were whisked away in commandeered taxis. A fire fight raged through the afternoon. Two American fighter planes began circling the area. Inside, TIME's translator, Nagidullah Quraishi, was ordered to the gatekeeper's roof and told to translate conversations between the Western soldiers and their Afghan allies. Alliance General Majid Rozi told the Americans and the British that a white single-story building inside the Taliban area needed to be hit, and the visitors proceeded to spot the target for the planes far above. "Thunder, Ranger," said the American radio operator, speaking to the airplanes above. "The coordinates are: north 3639984, east 06658945, elevation 1,299 ft." He turned to his comrades. "Four minutes."
"Three minutes."
"Two minutes."
"Thirty seconds."
"Fifteen seconds." From the sky, a great, arrow-shaped missile appeared, zeroing in on its target a hundred yards away and sounding like a car decelerating in high gear. The spotters lay flat. Alliance commanders and soldiers crouched against the door leading to the roof. The missile hit at 4:05 p.m. For a split second, as the concussive sound waves radiated outward, lungs emptied. Shrapnel whistled by. Then Alliance soldiers burst into applause. A U.S. soldier picked up a fallen piece of metal. "Souvenir," he said, grinning. Six more strikes followed before the British SAS commander re-established contact with Dave, still penned in with the TV crews. The SAS soldier told the Alliance commander that after two more strikes, his men should fire all their weapons. "Our guy is going to try to make a break for it," said the Briton. The conversation turned to Spann. "From what I understand, he was already gone before we got here," said an American.
"Three minutes," said the SAS guy. "Two minutes...30 seconds." Everyone crouched once more against the wall. Again a glistening white arrow screamed down, again the split-second blackout. "One more," said the SAS man.
MONDAY The American and British teams stayed in position overnight. Fighting was constant, red tracers shooting off into Mazar city. Sometime after dark, Dave and the journalists escaped over the north wall. "He just climbed over and hitched a ride into town," a special-operations soldier later explained. "The first thing we have to do now is get our other guy out."
By Monday morning the Alliance had established a new command post at the northeast tower on top of what an American commander described as "10 tons of munitions, rockets, mortars, the works." A tank was driven onto the tower. From his seat on the garrison roof, commander Mohammed Akbar guided mortar and tank fire to Taliban positions in the southwest. "Excellent--right on the nose!" he shouted, as bullets from Taliban snipers whizzed just over his head. Then came the next mistake.
Around 10 a.m. four more special-operations soldiers and eight men from the 10th Mountain Division arrived at a position about 300 yds. outside the fort to the northeast. Inside the fort, bomb spotters were preparing three more strikes. A pilot circled overhead, radioing instructions to the spotters, his voice clearly audible on handsets held by the soldiers posted outside the fort. "Be advised," he said to the soldiers in the fort, "you are dangerously close. You are about a hundred yards away from the target." "I think we're perhaps a little too close," came the spotter's reply. "But we have to be, to get the laser on the target." Pause. Bomb spotter: "We are about ready to pull back." Pilot: "We are about to release." Spotter: "Roger." Spotter: "Be advised we have new coordinates: north 3639996, east 06658866." Pilot: "Good. Copy." Spotter: "Mitch and Siberson are making their run now." Spotter again: "Two minutes
At 10:53 a.m. the missile slammed into the north wall, perhaps 10 yds. from the Alliance's command center in the northeast tower. Much more powerful than previous strikes, it sent clouds of dust hundreds of feet into the air. "No, no!" Alliance commander Olim Razum yelled at the 10th Mountain soldiers. "This is the wrong place! Tell them to cut it!" A special-operations man glanced up at the cloud and shouted, "Incoming shrapnel--get down!" As the dust cloud cleared, a U-shaped hole the size of a small swimming pool appeared in the wall next to the northeast tower. The tank had flipped onto its back, its gun turret blown off. Alliance soldiers, bleeding, coated in dust, began sliding down the side of the fort and staggering across the surrounding cotton fields. "It missed," said a soldier named Afiz, blood dripping from his eyes and ears. "I don't know where my friends are." From under the fort's entrance arch, SAS and American soldiers emerged choking and spitting. "We have one down, semiconscious, no external bleeding," a radio crackled. "We have men down," a special-operations soldier told TIME. "Get out of here. Please."
Within 20 min., the casualties and walking wounded were loaded into seven jeeps and minibuses, which sped off to the U.S. base. Nine men were airlifted out. Nik Mohammed, 24, an Alliance soldier on the northeast tower at the time of the strike, said he helped pull three uniformed soldiers he believed to be Americans from the rubble of the collapsed wall and claimed that two of them were dead. On Tuesday the Pentagon said that there had been no military deaths but that five U.S. service members had been seriously injured and had been evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Four British soldiers were also reported wounded over the previous 22 hours, one seriously, though British officials--who never comment on the SAS--will not confirm that they were wounded at Qala-i-Jangi. On the Alliance side, there were said to be as many as 30 dead and 50 injured.
At 4:50 p.m. a small group of special-operations soldiers returned. Dave was with them. He climbed up the northeast tower to confer with Alliance General Rozi. "You don't want to leave here tonight," an American soldier told TIME, checking his night-vision goggles. "There's going to be quite a show." The soldier used a reporter's satellite phone to call his wife and tell her he might be on the TV news that night--"Tape it all day, will you? O.K. Love you, babe." At midnight an American AC-130 gunship began lazily circling Qala-i-Jangi. It flew five times over the same spot, spraying the southern end of the fort with a golden stream of fire. Later a massive ball of flame lifted up from the fort, kicking off a fireworks display as mortar rounds and ammunition belts fired off into the night sky. Explosions sounded through the night; the blast blew open doors 10 miles away.
TUESDAY By the next morning the surviving Taliban troops were beginning to flag; Rozi estimated that there were only about 50 survivors from the original 600 or so in the fort and that they had no water or ammunition left. Their only food was horsemeat from Dostum's cavalry. A fighter who had escaped during the night was caught by local residents and hanged from a tree. Alliance forces were so confident of victory that at one frontline position, three shared a powerful joint of hashish. Others tucked into peanut butter and jelly from the American food drops. At 10 a.m. a group of 17 special-operations and SAS men returned to the gatekeeper's house. Harley-Davidson was there, along with Dave, who was wearing a black shalwar kameez (the traditional Afghan pants and long shirt) and carrying an AK-47. After talking to Rozi, Dave told his men, "We're going to close in on these guys pretty hard. The one thing the general said to watch out for is a mortar still operating in there."
At 10:50 a.m. U.S. and British troops positioned themselves along the parapets to the east of the Taliban compound. "Did you see the show last night?" one asked TIME, grinning. "We watched for two hours. Really something." Around 100 Alliance soldiers scaled the southwest tower and lay down along the walls, firing on the Taliban below. Others manned the western tower. Before long, wounded and dead Alliance soldiers were being ferried through the gates. A U.S. soldier ran back to greet an SAS comrade who had felt the full force of Monday's air strike. "How's your hearing today?" he bellowed. Pause. "I said, 'How's your hearing?'"
By 1:25 p.m. from the southwest tower, commander Akbar estimated Taliban strength at "1 1/2" men. On the field below lay hundreds of dead and dying. Two embraced in death. Alliance soldiers stepped gingerly over the bodies. Some of the dead had their hands bound, and Alliance soldiers used scissors to snip off the strings. At 2:10 p.m. Akbar decided all the Taliban fighters were dead and walked down onto the field. His men, by now plainly spooked by the suicidal bravery of the Taliban, had to be forced to break cover. One wounded Taliban soldier, lying in the long grass, was shot to pieces. Alliance soldiers started looting, taking guns and ammunition and rifling the pockets of the dead for money, pens and cigarettes. The Taliban's new-looking sneakers were a particular target. Within minutes, the Alliance fighters had thrown away their shoes and yanked the sneakers from the cold, gray feet of the Taliban dead. The bloated carcasses of 30 horses, with entrails spilling, added a thick stench to the smoke and gunpowder. All the dead were described by the Alliance as "terrorists" and "dangerous foreigners." "I killed four Chechens, four," said Mohammed Yasin excitedly. "I can show you the bodies." The occasional explosion from the smoldering arms depot sent Alliance men scampering across the field, hurdling bodies as they ran for cover.
In a basement under one pock-marked house, five Taliban fighters were trapped alive. Grenades were thrown in the tiny windows and AK-47s fired after them. With Alliance soldiers too afraid to enter the stables, a tank was brought in, crushing bodies under its tracks before firing five rounds into the block. In a ditch on the main parade ground, a young Taliban fighter, lying sprawled on his side, was still breathing. An Alliance soldier dropped a rock on his head. A few yards away lay a bloodied prayer book.
Even in the heat of battle, warriors can be rational; few fight to the death. But the Taliban at Qala-i-Jangi truly did, and beyond it. Spann's body, recovered by a special-operations squad, had been booby-trapped; a grenade had been hidden under the corpse of a Taliban fighter that lay on top of the American. As late as Thursday, those removing bodies were still taking fire from Taliban fighters who had somehow survived in the basements underneath the fort. On Saturday the basements were flooded; Northern Alliance observers expected perhaps five or six surviving Taliban to come out. In fact, at 11 a.m. no fewer than 86 filthy and hungry prisoners emerged; they were given bananas, apples and pomegranates, clothing and shoes. Three trucks took the wounded away. One of the 86 told Alliance fighters he was an American. The 20-year-old, who had been wounded in the leg, said he was from Washington. He would not give his name but said he was a convert to Islam who had come to Afghanistan--after a spell at a madrasah in Pakistan--to help the Taliban build a perfect Islamic government.
The battle was finally over. It had ended as it started, with a surrender. And its story held within its chapters a brutal lesson. The war against terrorism, they like to say, is a new form of war. But at Qala-i-Jangi, as the blood of horses and dead young men snaked into the dust, the oldest form of war imaginable seemed to have made a cruel and bitter return.
Inside the Battle at Qala-I-Jangi
From a ruined 19th century fortress, TIME correspondent Alex Perry records the crushing of a Taliban revolt
By ALEX PERRY
In Afghanistan, nothing is ever what it seems. Including surrender.
On Nov. 24, a bright, warm Saturday, 300 Taliban soldiers who had fled the American bombardment of Kunduz, their last stronghold in the north of Afghanistan, laid down their weapons in the desert a few miles to the north of Mazar-i-Sharif. They surrendered to Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who crowed that his forces had achieved a "great victory" as the pows were herded 50 at a time onto flatbed trucks.
Even by the standards of Afghanistan's warlords, Dostum has an unsavory reputation. In earlier episodes of Afghanistan's wars, he was reputed to have killed those of his soldiers who broke the rules by tying them to the tracks of his tanks. But outside Mazar, his soldiers told their prisoners that Dostum wanted to make a gesture of reconciliation to help unite Afghanistan's warring tribes. Afghan members of the Taliban would be free to return to their homes, while foreigners would be detained before being handed over to the U.N. Dostum didn't search his prisoners; that was a mistake, one he would bitterly regret. "If we had searched them, there would have been a fight," he said Wednesday, surveying hundreds of dismembered, blackened and crushed bodies. "But perhaps it wouldn't have been as bad as this."
The Taliban fighters, many of whom were foreigners, were transported from the field of surrender to a holding site in Qala-i-Jangi, a sprawling 19th century prison fortress to the west of Mazar, where Dostum stabled his horses. The convoy of prisoners had to pass through the city center; two weeks before, the Taliban had ruled the streets. The prisoners now peered out from under their blankets with shell-shocked, bloodshot eyes. The people of Mazar stared back at them with open hatred.
Things went wrong almost immediately. Once inside Qala-i-Jangi, the Taliban soldiers were asked to turn out their pockets. A prisoner, waiting until Alliance commander Nadir Ali was near, suddenly produced a grenade and pulled the pin, killing himself and the commander. In a similar attack the same night, another prisoner killed himself and senior Hazara commander Saeed Asad. The remaining men were led into underground cells to join scores of other captured Taliban fighters. Despite the grenade attacks, the Alliance guards were not reinforced.
Sunday Morning
The next morning, two Americans went to meet the prisoners at Qala-i-Jangi. Their mission at the fortress: to identify any members of al-Qaeda among the prisoners. But the Americans didn't conduct the interviews one by one--another mistake. Instead, at 11:15 a.m., the pair--Johnny Micheal Spann, 32, one of the CIA agents who had been active in Afghanistan since the war's beginning, the other identified by colleagues only as "Dave"--were taken to an open area outside the cells and a group of prisoners brought to meet them. According to members of a German television crew who were later trapped in the fort with Dave, Spann asked the prisoners who they were and why they joined the Taliban. They massed around him. "Why are you here?" Spann asked one. "To kill you," came the reply as the man lunged at Spann's neck. Spann drew his pistol and shot the man dead. Dave shot another, then grabbed an AK-47 from an Alliance guard and opened fire. According to eyewitness accounts given to the German team, the Taliban fighters launched themselves at Spann, scrabbling at his flesh with their hands, kicking and beating him. Spann killed two more with his pistol before he disappeared under the crush. An Alabaman with a wife and three children, Spann became the first American to die in combat in Afghanistan.
The Taliban then overpowered the Alliance guards, killing them with their own weapons. Dave mowed down three more Taliban, then sprinted to the main building along the north wall, where two Red Cross workers had just begun a meeting with the prison governor. "He burst in and told us to get out of there," says Simon Brooks, a Briton and a Red Cross staff member. "He was really shaken up. He said there were 20 dead Northern Alliance guys, and the Taliban were taking control of the fort." As Dave stayed behind to try to rescue Spann, the two Red Cross workers climbed up to the fort's parapet, hoisted themselves over the wall and slid 60 ft. down the other side. Meanwhile, the firing had alerted a pair of TV crews. They too ran to the main building; there they found Dave and were pinned down in the ensuing fire fight.
A few hundred yards to the south, in the prison block, the Taliban freed its comrades. Three escaped through a drain under the southern wall; all were soon shot by Alliance soldiers outside the fort. The Taliban fighters, trapped in the southwestern quarter of the fort, stormed a nearby armory, making off with AK-47s, grenades, mines, rocket launchers, mortars and ammunition. Alliance soldiers held on to the southeastern corner, which included an arched gateway, a courtyard and the gatekeeper's house. Other fighters took positions on the north wall and the roof of the main building. A vicious exchange of fire across the grassy parade ground followed. Two Alliance tanks along the north wall started firing into the Taliban area.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON At 2 p.m. two minivans and a pair of open-sided white Land Rovers mounted with machine guns pulled up outside the fortress gates. From the minivans jumped nine American special-operations men wearing wraparound sunglasses and baseball caps and carrying snub-nosed M-4 automatic rifles. The Land Rovers disgorged six British SAS soldiers armed with M-16s and dressed in jeans, sweaters, Afghan scarves and pakuls, the distinctive woolen hats of the Afghan mujahedin. The Americans and British quickly convened a conference with the Alliance leaders. "I want satcom [satellite communications] and JDAMS [guided munitions]," said the American commander. "Tell them there will be six or seven buildings in a line in the southwest half. If they can hit that, then that would kill a whole lot of these motherf______."
A bearded American in a Harley-Davidson cap and mirrored sunglasses raised Dave on the radio. "@#%$...@#%$...O.K....@#%$...O.K. Hold on, buddy, we're coming to get you," he said. Then, cutting the radio, he turned to his commander: "Mike is MIA. They've taken his gun and his ammo. We have another guy. He managed to kill two of them with his pistol, but he's holed up in the north side with no ammo." As a hurried discussion of tactics began, Harley-Davidson went back to his radio. Then he cut in: "@#%$. Let's stop f___ing around and get in there." Pointing to the sky, he added, "Tell those guys to stop scratching their balls and fly."
Outside the fort, Alliance soldiers began pouring out of the northeast battlements, skidding over the walls and down the ramparts. The wounded were whisked away in commandeered taxis. A fire fight raged through the afternoon. Two American fighter planes began circling the area. Inside, TIME's translator, Nagidullah Quraishi, was ordered to the gatekeeper's roof and told to translate conversations between the Western soldiers and their Afghan allies. Alliance General Majid Rozi told the Americans and the British that a white single-story building inside the Taliban area needed to be hit, and the visitors proceeded to spot the target for the planes far above. "Thunder, Ranger," said the American radio operator, speaking to the airplanes above. "The coordinates are: north 3639984, east 06658945, elevation 1,299 ft." He turned to his comrades. "Four minutes."
"Three minutes."
"Two minutes."
"Thirty seconds."
"Fifteen seconds." From the sky, a great, arrow-shaped missile appeared, zeroing in on its target a hundred yards away and sounding like a car decelerating in high gear. The spotters lay flat. Alliance commanders and soldiers crouched against the door leading to the roof. The missile hit at 4:05 p.m. For a split second, as the concussive sound waves radiated outward, lungs emptied. Shrapnel whistled by. Then Alliance soldiers burst into applause. A U.S. soldier picked up a fallen piece of metal. "Souvenir," he said, grinning. Six more strikes followed before the British SAS commander re-established contact with Dave, still penned in with the TV crews. The SAS soldier told the Alliance commander that after two more strikes, his men should fire all their weapons. "Our guy is going to try to make a break for it," said the Briton. The conversation turned to Spann. "From what I understand, he was already gone before we got here," said an American.
"Three minutes," said the SAS guy. "Two minutes...30 seconds." Everyone crouched once more against the wall. Again a glistening white arrow screamed down, again the split-second blackout. "One more," said the SAS man.
MONDAY The American and British teams stayed in position overnight. Fighting was constant, red tracers shooting off into Mazar city. Sometime after dark, Dave and the journalists escaped over the north wall. "He just climbed over and hitched a ride into town," a special-operations soldier later explained. "The first thing we have to do now is get our other guy out."
By Monday morning the Alliance had established a new command post at the northeast tower on top of what an American commander described as "10 tons of munitions, rockets, mortars, the works." A tank was driven onto the tower. From his seat on the garrison roof, commander Mohammed Akbar guided mortar and tank fire to Taliban positions in the southwest. "Excellent--right on the nose!" he shouted, as bullets from Taliban snipers whizzed just over his head. Then came the next mistake.
Around 10 a.m. four more special-operations soldiers and eight men from the 10th Mountain Division arrived at a position about 300 yds. outside the fort to the northeast. Inside the fort, bomb spotters were preparing three more strikes. A pilot circled overhead, radioing instructions to the spotters, his voice clearly audible on handsets held by the soldiers posted outside the fort. "Be advised," he said to the soldiers in the fort, "you are dangerously close. You are about a hundred yards away from the target." "I think we're perhaps a little too close," came the spotter's reply. "But we have to be, to get the laser on the target." Pause. Bomb spotter: "We are about ready to pull back." Pilot: "We are about to release." Spotter: "Roger." Spotter: "Be advised we have new coordinates: north 3639996, east 06658866." Pilot: "Good. Copy." Spotter: "Mitch and Siberson are making their run now." Spotter again: "Two minutes
At 10:53 a.m. the missile slammed into the north wall, perhaps 10 yds. from the Alliance's command center in the northeast tower. Much more powerful than previous strikes, it sent clouds of dust hundreds of feet into the air. "No, no!" Alliance commander Olim Razum yelled at the 10th Mountain soldiers. "This is the wrong place! Tell them to cut it!" A special-operations man glanced up at the cloud and shouted, "Incoming shrapnel--get down!" As the dust cloud cleared, a U-shaped hole the size of a small swimming pool appeared in the wall next to the northeast tower. The tank had flipped onto its back, its gun turret blown off. Alliance soldiers, bleeding, coated in dust, began sliding down the side of the fort and staggering across the surrounding cotton fields. "It missed," said a soldier named Afiz, blood dripping from his eyes and ears. "I don't know where my friends are." From under the fort's entrance arch, SAS and American soldiers emerged choking and spitting. "We have one down, semiconscious, no external bleeding," a radio crackled. "We have men down," a special-operations soldier told TIME. "Get out of here. Please."
Within 20 min., the casualties and walking wounded were loaded into seven jeeps and minibuses, which sped off to the U.S. base. Nine men were airlifted out. Nik Mohammed, 24, an Alliance soldier on the northeast tower at the time of the strike, said he helped pull three uniformed soldiers he believed to be Americans from the rubble of the collapsed wall and claimed that two of them were dead. On Tuesday the Pentagon said that there had been no military deaths but that five U.S. service members had been seriously injured and had been evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Four British soldiers were also reported wounded over the previous 22 hours, one seriously, though British officials--who never comment on the SAS--will not confirm that they were wounded at Qala-i-Jangi. On the Alliance side, there were said to be as many as 30 dead and 50 injured.
At 4:50 p.m. a small group of special-operations soldiers returned. Dave was with them. He climbed up the northeast tower to confer with Alliance General Rozi. "You don't want to leave here tonight," an American soldier told TIME, checking his night-vision goggles. "There's going to be quite a show." The soldier used a reporter's satellite phone to call his wife and tell her he might be on the TV news that night--"Tape it all day, will you? O.K. Love you, babe." At midnight an American AC-130 gunship began lazily circling Qala-i-Jangi. It flew five times over the same spot, spraying the southern end of the fort with a golden stream of fire. Later a massive ball of flame lifted up from the fort, kicking off a fireworks display as mortar rounds and ammunition belts fired off into the night sky. Explosions sounded through the night; the blast blew open doors 10 miles away.
TUESDAY By the next morning the surviving Taliban troops were beginning to flag; Rozi estimated that there were only about 50 survivors from the original 600 or so in the fort and that they had no water or ammunition left. Their only food was horsemeat from Dostum's cavalry. A fighter who had escaped during the night was caught by local residents and hanged from a tree. Alliance forces were so confident of victory that at one frontline position, three shared a powerful joint of hashish. Others tucked into peanut butter and jelly from the American food drops. At 10 a.m. a group of 17 special-operations and SAS men returned to the gatekeeper's house. Harley-Davidson was there, along with Dave, who was wearing a black shalwar kameez (the traditional Afghan pants and long shirt) and carrying an AK-47. After talking to Rozi, Dave told his men, "We're going to close in on these guys pretty hard. The one thing the general said to watch out for is a mortar still operating in there."
At 10:50 a.m. U.S. and British troops positioned themselves along the parapets to the east of the Taliban compound. "Did you see the show last night?" one asked TIME, grinning. "We watched for two hours. Really something." Around 100 Alliance soldiers scaled the southwest tower and lay down along the walls, firing on the Taliban below. Others manned the western tower. Before long, wounded and dead Alliance soldiers were being ferried through the gates. A U.S. soldier ran back to greet an SAS comrade who had felt the full force of Monday's air strike. "How's your hearing today?" he bellowed. Pause. "I said, 'How's your hearing?'"
By 1:25 p.m. from the southwest tower, commander Akbar estimated Taliban strength at "1 1/2" men. On the field below lay hundreds of dead and dying. Two embraced in death. Alliance soldiers stepped gingerly over the bodies. Some of the dead had their hands bound, and Alliance soldiers used scissors to snip off the strings. At 2:10 p.m. Akbar decided all the Taliban fighters were dead and walked down onto the field. His men, by now plainly spooked by the suicidal bravery of the Taliban, had to be forced to break cover. One wounded Taliban soldier, lying in the long grass, was shot to pieces. Alliance soldiers started looting, taking guns and ammunition and rifling the pockets of the dead for money, pens and cigarettes. The Taliban's new-looking sneakers were a particular target. Within minutes, the Alliance fighters had thrown away their shoes and yanked the sneakers from the cold, gray feet of the Taliban dead. The bloated carcasses of 30 horses, with entrails spilling, added a thick stench to the smoke and gunpowder. All the dead were described by the Alliance as "terrorists" and "dangerous foreigners." "I killed four Chechens, four," said Mohammed Yasin excitedly. "I can show you the bodies." The occasional explosion from the smoldering arms depot sent Alliance men scampering across the field, hurdling bodies as they ran for cover.
In a basement under one pock-marked house, five Taliban fighters were trapped alive. Grenades were thrown in the tiny windows and AK-47s fired after them. With Alliance soldiers too afraid to enter the stables, a tank was brought in, crushing bodies under its tracks before firing five rounds into the block. In a ditch on the main parade ground, a young Taliban fighter, lying sprawled on his side, was still breathing. An Alliance soldier dropped a rock on his head. A few yards away lay a bloodied prayer book.
Even in the heat of battle, warriors can be rational; few fight to the death. But the Taliban at Qala-i-Jangi truly did, and beyond it. Spann's body, recovered by a special-operations squad, had been booby-trapped; a grenade had been hidden under the corpse of a Taliban fighter that lay on top of the American. As late as Thursday, those removing bodies were still taking fire from Taliban fighters who had somehow survived in the basements underneath the fort. On Saturday the basements were flooded; Northern Alliance observers expected perhaps five or six surviving Taliban to come out. In fact, at 11 a.m. no fewer than 86 filthy and hungry prisoners emerged; they were given bananas, apples and pomegranates, clothing and shoes. Three trucks took the wounded away. One of the 86 told Alliance fighters he was an American. The 20-year-old, who had been wounded in the leg, said he was from Washington. He would not give his name but said he was a convert to Islam who had come to Afghanistan--after a spell at a madrasah in Pakistan--to help the Taliban build a perfect Islamic government.
The battle was finally over. It had ended as it started, with a surrender. And its story held within its chapters a brutal lesson. The war against terrorism, they like to say, is a new form of war. But at Qala-i-Jangi, as the blood of horses and dead young men snaked into the dust, the oldest form of war imaginable seemed to have made a cruel and bitter return.
Iron Dragon - July 20, 2004 06:48 AM (GMT)
Good find bro swit
CQB at its best :fire:
CQB at its best :fire:
Singa Lion - July 21, 2004 12:35 PM (GMT)
wow i saw clips of this fight at cnn but this is more vivid the story described here!
MSantor - June 16, 2008 10:58 PM (GMT)
Hopefully this will not escalate tensions between the two neighbours, although the growing problem with the tribal groups living along Pakistan's border region of Waziristan who are sympathetic to Al Qaeda should not be allowed to fester. The current coaliton government of Pakistan is making deals with these tribal groups and it should have more backbone than to pander to such militants!
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/...stan/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/...stan/index.html
| QUOTE |
| Karzai issues warning to Pakistan Story Highlights Karzai warns his troops will cross Pakistan border to tackle militants Afghan president says his country's patience is wearing thin with attacks Karzai has previously urged Pakistan and coalition troops to take action ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned Sunday his troops would take their battle against Taliban extremists across the border into Pakistan to prevent them launching attacks in his country. Karzai told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that Afghan soldiers had the right to enter Pakistan because insurgents crossing the border to attack Afghan targets "gives us the right to go back and do the same." The Afghan president has previously urged Pakistan and its U.S.-led coalition allies to do more to tackle extremists holed up in Pakistan's remote border regions, but this is the first time he has indicated taking matters into his own hands. Karzai said his administration's "patience was running thin." He said the cross-border attacks have destroyed homes and schools. "This is a two-way road, and Afghans are good in two-way road journeys," he said. "We will complete the journey, we will get them and we will defeat them. And we will avenge all that they have done in Afghanistan for the past so many years." Pakistan's prime minister responded that his country would not "allow" Afghan troops in. "We will neither interfere in the internal affairs of any country, nor will we allow anyone to interfere in our affairs," Yousuf Raza Gilani told Pakistan's private ARY-OneWorld television. "Such statements will not help in the normalization of friendly relations between the two countries, and will hurt the sentiments of people on both sides of the border," he said. Gilani added that his country wants "friendly" ties with Afghanistan. Karzai's comments came as Afghan and coalition forces killed more than 15 insurgents and captured five while searching for militants who escaped in a daring jail-break in the southern city of Kandahar. The jail breakout, which saw hundreds of Taliban fighters take flight, has come as major blow to efforts to suppress the extremists, just as coalition forces appeared to be gaining the upper hand In his address Sunday, Karzai named several militant leaders by name -- including Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. . Mehsud had been identified by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's administration as the mastermind behind last year's assassination of former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. The CIA reached the same conclusion. Last month, Pakistan's new government said it was negotiating a deal with the Mehsud tribes of South Waziristan that involved exchanging prisoners and withdrawing Pakistani forces. Amid the negotiations, Baitullah Mehsud declared a cease-fire. "Baitullah Mehsud should that know we will go after him and hit him in his house," Karzai said. He added: "The Pakistani government should know it. We will come and hit him there, wherever he is." The issue of cross-border raids came to the forefront last week after a U.S. military airstrike inside Pakistan soil killed 11 Pakistani troops. A U.S. official with knowledge of the incident told CNN that Tuesday's airstrike targeted suspected militants who had fled into Pakistan after conducting an ambush on the Afghan side of the border. The official said the mission was permitted under the rules of engagement, which allow "hot pursuit" across the border of suspected militants when locations are verified. The top spokesman for the Pakistan army, Gen. Athar Abbas, told CNN that the airstrike occurred after U.S. forces were called in by Afghan troops who had engaged in a border clash with Taliban forces. The Taliban forces fired on the Afghan troops as they tried to set up a checkpoint in a disputed area along the Afghan-Pakistan border, Abbas said. The Afghan troops then called for help from the U.S.-led coalition forces, which carried out an airstrike on positions where Pakistani paramilitary forces were stationed, Abbas said. |
MSantor - June 22, 2008 03:12 AM (GMT)
I wonder if the Pakistani government is losing control of its troops. :wow:
Do we know for sure that it was Pakistani artillery that fired across the border? The three rounds of "indirect fire" could have been fired across the border by agencies other than the Pakistani Army. Well we all know how accurate the press is when they call LAV's tanks so perhaps it could have been Taliban mortar men.
Hopefully the situation won't escalate further than this.
http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/pressrelease...080621-277.html
Do we know for sure that it was Pakistani artillery that fired across the border? The three rounds of "indirect fire" could have been fired across the border by agencies other than the Pakistani Army. Well we all know how accurate the press is when they call LAV's tanks so perhaps it could have been Taliban mortar men.
Hopefully the situation won't escalate further than this.
http://www.nato.int/isaf/docu/pressrelease...080621-277.html
| QUOTE |
ISAF attacked by cross-border artillery fire ISAF news release PR# 2008-277, 21 Jun 08 KABUL, Afghanistan - An ISAF forward operating base (FOB) and an Afghan National Army compound in north-eastern Paktika Province were attacked with indirect fire from across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border today. Three rounds of indirect fire landed in the vicinity of the ISAF FOB and three rounds landed inside an Afghan National Army compound. ISAF forces determined the origination of the rounds to be in Pakistan and returned artillery fire in self-defence. The engagement started at approximately 5:15 p.m. local and the Pakistan military was immediately notified when ISAF forces came under fire. No casualties have been reported. |
MSantor - February 28, 2009 06:27 PM (GMT)
Talk about a logistics nightmare as everything and everybody has to go by air.
| QUOTE |
From the Army Times. Tactical advantage Stryker team will give boost to Afghanistan operation By Matthew Cox and Michelle Tan mcox@militarytimes.com mtan@militarytimes.com When the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team deploys this summer, it will hit the ground with a tactical edge that’s never been seen before in Afghanistan. That’s just what Gen. David McKiernan, commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, wants. “I asked for a Stryker capability with one of the brigade combat teams, so that it could provide the mobility, the situational awareness, the protection — and quite frankly, it provides a lot of infantrymen,” McKiernan said at a Feb. 18 Pentagon briefing. “And that would give us an ability to maneuver capabilities in the southern and southwestern parts of Afghanistan.” McKiernan said it’s “an area where we need persistent security presence in order to fight a counterinsurgency and to shape, clear, hold and build.” The Stryker brigade, the Army’s newest and part of the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Wash., had been set to deploy to Iraq for its first combat tour. Now the unit will be part of a buildup in Afghanistan ordered by President Barack Obama. By summer, 17,000 more U.S. troops will deploy to Afghanistan to help squash a complex and stubborn insurgency, officials announced Feb. 17. The move will bring the total number of U.S. troops there to about 55,000. In addition to the 4,000-strong Stryker brigade, the plus-up plan calls for 5,000 other support troops. Those units have not been identified. Also, 8,000 Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C., are to be operational by the “highest part of the insurgent fighting season this summer,” McKiernan said. He added that strength provided by the additional troops in Afghanistan — which includes 3rd BCT, 10th Mountain Division, which is already operating south of Kabul, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, which is to deploy in the spring — likely will have to be sustained for three to five years. “This is not a temporary force uplift,” he said. “It’s going to need to be sustained for some period of time.” The decision on two requests that remain unfilled — including a brigade’s worth of trainers to mentor the Afghan army and police — likely will not be made until later this year, he said. “I have what I need through the summer, what I’ve asked for,” McKiernan said. So far, Afghanistan rotations have fallen on light infantry brigades, whose training for dismounted and motorized operations are most conducive to the varied, mostly austere terrain there. Senior ground commanders intend to use the SBCT’s unique blend of fast-moving firepower and light infantry structure to help tame the hundreds of square miles of open country that make up portions of southern Afghanistan. Over the past five years, the Army has reserved these lightweight, armored fighting units for service in Iraq. In that time, SBCTs have forged a reputation for moving fast and attacking enemy strongholds all over the country’s densely populated cities as well as its vast desert frontier. The senior leadership in Iraq often has relied on the SBCTs to act as a quick-reaction force because of their flexibility to quickly prepare, travel several hundred miles and fight on arrival. They can be plugged into hot spots on short notice. For example, in April 2004, at the request of senior commanders in Iraq, 3rd SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division, sent one of its three battalions to fight in the battle for Najaf. The battalion had 24 hours to get ready. It traveled 500 miles in about 36 hours and showed up ready for battle. Master Sgt. Marc Griffith, who came home from Iraq in June 2008 after serving with 4th SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division, sees advantages in the order for Strykers to hit Afghanistan, a place he’s served four times. “There’s going to be a fight down there, and I think they’re a good unit to be down there,” he said. “Giving them the Stryker gives them that roving locker room that they can refit, rearm [and] maneuver from A to B more quickly.” The Stryker ’s ability to carry a complete nine-man infantry squad is a key advantage, said Griffith, who served and twice in Iraq with 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment before deploying with the 4th SBCT. He is now assigned to Project Manager Soldier Warrior. Also, Strykers are “more protected than a Humvee, it takes less logistical and muscle movement than an air assault unit, and it has proven its worth in Iraq,” he said. “I think it’ll be just as effective, if not more, in Afghanistan, as long as it’s utilized and matched with the correct terrain.” The only challenge he envisions is logistics, Griffith said. “The distances in Afghanistan and the infrastructure that supports that country can’t compare to Iraq,” he said. “The speed in which you can get around Iraq is much greater than in Afghanistan.” Maintenance depots are now being stood up for the 300 Stryker vehicles that will be sent to the Afghanistan theater, said Lt. Gen. James Pillsbury, deputy commanding general of Army Materiel Command. The current maintenance sustainment plan for Strykers has it done by contractors in theater for the first two years, he said, and after that the work would go to military maintainers. “We’re going to put the repair capability where it’s needed,” Pillsbury said. “It’s probably going to be north and south.” The 5th Stryker Brigade soldiers were at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., when the announcement was made about their deployment. However, the soldiers had earlier received notice that they might be diverted to Afghanistan, brigade spokesman Maj. Brian DeSantis said. “The brigade switched some training objectives and the soldiers who were learning Arabic did switch to learning Pashto, they did switch to the cultural immersion program for Afghanistan,” he said. “Fortunately they had enough time here at the National Training Center to switch from an Iraq scenario to an Afghanistan scenario, so the brigade got out here and was able to jump right into [it].” The soldiers, who are expected to return to Fort Lewis in early March, also are benefiting from NTC trainers and staff who have experience in Afghanistan, DeSantis said. The Stryker brigade concept was launched in late 1999 when then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki tasked the Army to stand up a highly deployable fighting force that combined the flexibility of a light infantry force with the staying power of a heavy outfit. The Stryker vehicle is designed to fit inside a C-130 cargo aircraft, which allows the Army to deploy a brigade anywhere in the world in 96 hours. The Stryker can also be transported by C5 Galaxys and C-17 Globemasters. Since 2003, the Army has fielded seven SBCTs, each equipped with 300 Stryker vehicles. There are 10 variants of the eightwheeled common-chassis design. At the heart of the Stryker formation is the M1126 Infantry Carrier Vehicle. In addition to its twoman crew, it can easily carry a full nine-man infantry squad. The heavier M2A2 Bradley fighting vehicle has a crew of three and carries six infantrymen. Stryker vehicles have a sophisticated communications package that consists of Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below, the Army’s tactical Internet, GPS and radio systems, which give leaders multiple ways of communicating on the battlefield. In addition, the 5th SBCT will be the first full combat brigade to deploy with Land Warrior, a wearable, command-and-control kit that recently returned from a year of combat in Iraq with Stryker soldiers from 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 4th SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division. Leaders down to the teamleader level can look into the miniature computer screen on Land Warrior ’s helmet-mounted display and view mission-specific satellite imagery, maps and graphics stored on the system’s microcomputer processor. The navigation system lets a leader track his position and his subordinate leaders’ positions, which appear as icons on a digital map. Soldiers from 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry credited Land Warrior with giving them a clearer view of their tactical environment and empowering them to move with more certainty than ever before. The 5th SBCT is scheduled to deploy with about 1,000 sets of a newer version of Land Warrior, one that weighs about 8 pounds, compared with the 11-pound system 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry took to Iraq. The Strykers’ Remote Weapons Station allows the vehicle commander to track targets and shoot from inside the Stryker. The RWS also has Forward Looking Infrared or thermal imaging that can be used day or night to scan for targets. The additional forces will help U.S. and NATO forces change what McKiernan called a “stalemate” in the volatile southern provinces of Afghanistan. “But I would like to reinforce what the president has said, that this is not going to be won by military forces alone,” he said. “While this will give us a security foundation, we certainly need additional contributions, civilian capacity-building programs that will enable people in Afghanistan to feel hope and to develop their abilities to take the lead for their governance.” Staff writer Gina Cavallaro contributed to this report. |
markniraq - March 1, 2009 02:19 AM (GMT)
A Stryker Brigade in Afghanistan....... Hmmmm.....
MSantor - March 2, 2009 01:30 AM (GMT)
Just an update:
| QUOTE |
| AF tapped to fly 300 Strykers to Afghanistan By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer Posted : Sunday Mar 1, 2009 8:45:42 EST The Army will be depending on the Air Force to deliver about 300 Stryker combat vehicles to Afghanistan, according to Air Force Gen. Duncan McNabb, the boss of U.S. Transportation Command. McNabb told members of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that airlifting the Strykers into Afghanistan was the only option because of their highly sophisticated gear and the threat to convoys moving goods by land across Pakistan. A C-130 Hercules can hold one 19-ton Stryker, a C-17 Globemaster has room for four and a C-5 Galaxy can carry up to five, according to military and contractor fact sheets. Commercial cargo planes could carry some of the vehicles. The Strykers ordered to be in Afghanistan by August are assigned to the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Lewis, Wash. The Army installation is adjacent to McChord Air Force Base, a West Coast hub for C-17 operations. Air Force and commercial cargo planes were the primary way large MRAP vehicles — short for mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles — were delivered to Afghanistan last year. |
MSantor - March 4, 2009 06:50 PM (GMT)
No doubt this is related to this other topic about India offering 120,000 troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, but I'd prefer that the topics be kept in seperate threads, with this one focusing on China's possible future involvement.
| QUOTE |
| BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO may ask China to provide support for the war effort in Afghanistan, including possibly opening a supply link for alliance forces, a senior U.S. official said Monday. The subject is still under consideration and no decision has been reached on whether to approach Beijing, the official said on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue. He spoke ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Thursday in Brussels, which will include Hillary Rodham Clinton in her first European trip as U.S. secretary of state. One way Beijing could help would be to open an alternate logistics route through western China into Afghanistan, the U.S. official said in Brussels. China shares a 76-kilometer- (50-mile)-long border with Afghanistan in the Wakhan Corridor, a thin sparsely populated strip of Afghan territory separating Pakistan and Tajikistan. The 2,000-year-old-caravan route — once used by Marco Polo — is now a dirt road that crosses some of the world's most mountainous regions. Until now, China — which also has faced problems with Islamic militants in its western regions — has generally been supportive of the Afghan government and the U.S.-led allied war effort. But Beijing has shied away from involving itself too closely in the conflict. The NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels comes amid intense diplomatic efforts to secure alternate supply routes to Afghanistan, to augment the main logistical lines through Pakistan, which have been under increasing attacks by Taliban guerrillas. Russia and several other Central Asian states — which also are concerned about the progress of the war in Afghanistan — have allowed the United States, Germany and some other NATO nations to ferry non-lethal equipment by rail to the borders of Afghanistan, thus easing the supply squeeze faced by the alliance. But NATO has continued to look for more routes to landlocked Afghanistan, especially after President Barack Obama announced that 17,000 more U.S. troops would be sent to reinforce the 56,000 allied soldiers already there. Some officials have even suggested that individual nations could explore opening up a new route through Iran to western Afghanistan. |
MSantor - April 20, 2009 06:09 AM (GMT)
Why such a long gap since their last deployment there? ??? Does it have something to do with the current NZ government and their political willingness?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2345400/US...-to-Afghanistan
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2345400/US...-to-Afghanistan
| QUOTE |
| The US has asked for New Zealand's Special Air Service combat soldiers to be sent to Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Murray McCully confirmed today. Mr McCully met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington earlier this month and he said that while she did not specifically ask for the SAS, a formal request had now been received. If the Government agrees, as it is likely to, the elite troops will be sent on their fourth mission to Afghanistan. They were last there in 2006. "They've sought specifically special forces, SAS," Mr McCully said on TV One's Q&A programme. "The response is that we're having a look at what we can do at the moment, we started that process before I was in the US." Mr McCully said there was a military and a civilian component to the US request, although he did not go into details about civilian assistance. He said the Government was going to consider its resources, and take into account the rollover of the provincial reconstruction team of about 140 Defence Force personnel that was already operating in Afghanistan and would be there until at least September next year. Mr McCully said there were resource and capacity issues to address. "We're looking at those issues alongside the SAS deployment and saying if something else happens somewhere else closer to home in our region, what is our capacity to react," he said. "Remember Afghanistan is not our biggest deployment, Timor-Leste is, we've got significant numbers of people in the Solomons, we've seen trouble in Tonga, we've seen trouble in other places." Mr McCully said he was not including Fiji in that scenario. He would not say specifically when the Government would make a decision about sending the SAS to Afghanistan, but referred to the Government's defence review due to be completed by August. That coincides with elections in Afghanistan, when the country will be particularly vulnerable to unrest. "We could crib a few weeks on that (August) if we tried hard," he said. - NZPA |
MSantor - June 25, 2009 05:49 AM (GMT)
A sign that the Germans may have to start becoming more pro-active in combatting the Taliban in their sectors? RIP to the Soldiers killed. :salute:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8115068.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8115068.stm
| QUOTE |
| German troops die in Afghanistan The Afghan government's presence in Kunduz province is limited Three German soldiers have been killed during a clash with insurgents in Afghanistan, the German defence ministry has said. The soldiers were on a joint operation with Afghan forces when the attack took place near the northern city of Kunduz, a ministry spokesman said. The German military base in Kunduz is a frequent target of attacks. Some 3,700 German troops are serving in Afghanistan with Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The BBC's Bilal Sarwary recently travelled to the Char Dara district in Kunduz province. He said there was no obvious government presence but he did see plenty of Taliban fighters driving on their motorbikes. According to the area's Governor, Enginner Omaar, there have been problems in the area because of a lack of police officers. "We have asked the government for more forces because we underestimated the problem in Kunduz," he told the BBC. Unpopular operation In 2008, the deteriorating security situation in northern Afghanistan prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to increase the number of German troops in the country to up to 4,400 by the end of this year. But the military operation in Afghanistan is unpopular with some people in Germany and is likely to be a campaign issue ahead of general elections in September. Some 35 German troops have died in the country since 2002. |
MSantor - July 1, 2009 11:26 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| LOWER HELMAND RIVER VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN (Reuters) - U.S. Marines launched a helicopter assault early on Thursday in the lower Helmand river valley in southern Afghanistan, spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier said. A Reuters correspondent in the valley saw flares in the sky over the town of Nawa, south of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. The valley of irrigated wheat and opium fields along the Helmand river is largely in the hands of Taliban fighters who have resisted British-led NATO forces for years. The United States has sent 8,500 Marines to Helmand province in the last two months, the largest wave of a massive buildup of forces that will see the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan rise from 32,000 at the beginning of this year to 68,000 by year's end. President Barack Obama has declared the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan to be the main security threat facing the United States. Helmand province is one of the Taliban's main heartlands in southern Afghanistan and produces the largest share of the country's opium crop which supplies 90 percent of the world's heroin. Attacks by Taliban fighters are at their highest levels since the strict Islamists were driven out of Kabul by U.S.-backed Afghan opponents in 2001 after refusing to turn over Osama bin Laden in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States. U.S. and NATO commanders have said they intend to deploy American reinforcements to seize Taliban-held territory in the south in time for Afghanistan to hold a presidential election on August 20. (Reporting by Peter Graff, editing by Tim Pearce) |
MSantor - July 2, 2009 08:42 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Marines exchange fire with Taliban in searing heat Associated Press Writer Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writer – 11 mins ago NAWA, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines hiked through searing heat and took fire from small pockets of militants Thursday after landing in this Taliban-controlled southern region of tree-lined fields, mud homes and crisscrossing waterways in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize Afghanistan. Elsewhere, the U.S. military announced that insurgents were believed to have captured an American soldier missing in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. The missing soldier was not involved in Operation Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword," under way in southern Afghanistan. The southern offensive was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday (4:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, 2030 GMT), as thousands of Marines poured from helicopters and armored vehicles into Taliban-controlled villages along roughly 20 miles of the Helmand River in Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-producing area. The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested region before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election. One Marine was killed and several others were injured or wounded throughout the day, the military announced. Officials described the offensive as the largest and fastest-moving of the war's new phase and the biggest Marine assault since the one in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. It involves nearly 4,000 newly arrived Marines plus 650 Afghan forces. British forces last week led similar, but smaller, missions to clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province. "Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said in a statement. Pakistan's army said it had moved troops from elsewhere on its side of the Afghan border to the stretch opposite Helmand to try to stop any militants from fleeing the offensive. It gave no more details, but U.S. and Pakistani officials have expressed concern that stepped-up operations in southern Afghanistan could push the insurgents across the border. Transport helicopters carried hundreds of Marines into the village of Nawa, some 20 miles south of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, in a region where no U.S. or other NATO troops have operated in large numbers. The troops took many insurgents by surprise, dropping behind Taliban lines, said Capt. Drew Schoenmaker, from Greene, N.Y. "We are kind of forging new ground here. We are going to a place nobody has been before," said Schoenmaker, 31, who commands Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. Several hundred Marines took positions in a freshly plowed dirt field at 3 a.m. The soft, deep dirt proved challenging for troops weighed down with days' worth of water, food and gear, and many frequently stumbled. At daybreak the Marines walked along tree lines, and at 6:15 a.m. the company took its first incoming fire, likely from an AK-47 along a tree-line. The next three hours brought repeated bursts of gunfire and volleys of rocket-propelled grenades, sending deep booms across the countryside. A small force of Afghan soldiers accompanying the Camp Pendleton-based Marines got into several scraps with an insurgent force of about 20 fighters. The fire came from a mud-brick compound, and the Marines, the Afghan soldiers and their British advisers surrounded the compound on the east and the south. Before the mission, Schoenmaker, the company commander, said he would practice "tactical patience" as a way to avoid civilian casualties — an issue newly arrived Gen. Stanley McChrystal has underscored in recent weeks. Though troops in many similar circumstances have called in airstrikes on such a militant-controlled compound, Schoenmaker did not. "We made the decision to isolate the compound and not destroy it because we couldn't confirm if civilians were inside," he said. The militants were believed to have escaped out the back. A Cobra helicopter circling overhead for most of the day fired rockets at a tree line nearby. Other troops walked through fields of corn and past mud-wall homes. Only a handful of villagers dared to venture outside. Helmand's deadly heat, well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, proved to be another enemy the Marines had to fight. Because soldiers were on foot, they had to carry all their own water and food. Forward observers and snipers spent the entire day under the cloudless sky. "It's like when you open up the oven when you're cooking a pizza and you want to see if it's done. You get that blast of hot air. That's how it feels the whole time," said Lance Corp. Charlie Duggan Jr., 21, of Baldwinsville, N.Y. The Marines trained for months in the heat of the Mojave desert for the deployment, and many appeared happy to be here. At one point Thursday, some 50 Marines were relaxing in an abandoned and dilapidated mud brick compound, their dusty-brown uniforms stained with perspiration. Suddenly someone spotted an Afghan male who appeared to be watching them from a nearby road. The Marines quickly threw on their flak jackets and Kevlar helmets. "It sucks but it's what you've been training for your whole life," Lt. Chris Wilson, 25, of Ramsey, N.J., said with a smile as he held a radio with an eight-foot antenna. Thursday was Wilson's first mission into a combat zone. Last summer, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit took the town of Garmser — about 15 miles south of Schoenmaker's company — and helped provide security for an area U.S. commanders say is now relatively secure. The U.S. would like to replicate the success in Garmser to the north and south. The strategic setting can help the military slow the opium poppy and heroin trade and interdict fighters coming from Pakistan. Of immediate need is security for the country's Aug. 20 election. Southern Afghanistan is a Taliban stronghold but also a region where Afghan President Hamid Karzai is seeking votes from fellow Pashtun tribesmen. Without such a massive Marine assault in this southern section of Helmand, the Afghan government would likely not have been able to set up voting booths to which citizens could safely travel. The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections and expects the total number of U.S. forces there to reach 68,000 by year's end. That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008 but still half as many as are now in Iraq. The Taliban, who took control of Afghanistan in 1996 and were ousted from power following a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, have made a violent comeback, wreaking havoc in much of the country's south and east. Thousands of British forces, fighting under NATO command, have been in Helmand since 2006 with broadly the same strategy, but security has deteriorated. They have encountered stronger resistance than had been expected from Taliban fighters bankrolled by the vast opium and heroin trade. Reversing the insurgency's momentum has been a key component of the new U.S. strategy, and thousands of additional troops allow commanders to push into and stay in areas where international and Afghan troops had no permanent presence. In March, Obama unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan, seeking to defeat al-Qaida terrorists there and in Pakistan with a bigger force and a new commander. Taliban and other extremists, including those allied with al-Qaida, routinely cross the two nations' border. Obama told The Associated Press on Thursday that he will reassess the possible need for additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the August elections. The president said the main U.S. goal is to keep al-Qaida from acquiring a haven from which it can train fighters and launch attacks on the United States or its allies. He said the U.S. and its allies also must build up the Afghan national army and police and enable Pakistan to secure its borders against terrorist movements. Last year, NATO and Pakistani forces cooperated in a series of complementary operations on the border, but the overall commitment of Islamabad to Washington's aims in Afghanistan has long been questioned. Pakistan has frequently been accused in the past of failing to stop — and sometimes aiding — the movement of insurgents into Afghanistan from its side of the border. ___ Associated Press writers Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul, Nahal Toosi in Islamabad and Lara Jakes in Washington contributed to this report. |
MSantor - July 4, 2009 09:29 PM (GMT)
And the assault continues, reportedly encountering lesser resistance.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090703/.../as_afghanistan
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090703/.../as_afghanistan
| QUOTE |
| US Marines meet little resistance as they push into south Afghanistan 1 hour, 22 minutes ago By Chris Brummitt,Jason Straziuso, The Associated Press NAWA, Afghanistan - U.S. Marines pushed deeper into Taliban areas of southern Afghanistan, seeking to cut insurgent supply lines and win over local elders in the biggest U.S. military operation here since the American-led invasion of 2001. On the other side of the border, U.S. missiles struck a Pakistani Taliban militant training centre and communications centre, killing 17 people and wounding nearly 30, Pakistani intelligence officials said. Both U.S. operations were aimed at what President Barack Obama considers as the biggest dangers in the region: a resurgent Taliban-led insurgency allied with al-Qaida that threatens both nuclear-armed Pakistan and the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan. The 4,000-strong U.S. force met little resistance Friday as troops fanned out into villages in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, although one Marine was killed and several others were wounded the day before, U.S. officials said. Despite minimal contact, the Marines could see militants using flashlights late Thursday to signal one another about American troop movements. Military spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier said the goal of the Helmand operation was not simply to kill Taliban fighters but to win over the local population. Marines also hope to cut the routes used by militants to funnel weapons, ammunition and fighters from Pakistan to the Taliban, which mounted an increasingly violent insurgency since its hard-line Islamist government was toppled in 2001 by an international coalition. As Operation Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword," entered its second day, Marines took control of the district centres of Nawa and Garmser, and negotiated entry into Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district, Pelletier said. In one village near Nawa, the atmosphere was tense. "When we asked if they had a village elder or mullah for the American commander to talk to, the answer was no," said Capt. Drew Schoenmaker, a Marine company commander. "It's fear of reprisal. Fear and intimidation is one thing the enemy does very well." The head of U.S. Central Command warned Friday that American troops are in for a tough fight. While visiting Calgary, Canada, Gen. David Petraeus - best known for co-ordinating the troop surge in Iraq that is credited with reducing that country's violence - cautioned that the Taliban are resilient fighters. "I think you have to recognize this is an enemy that is adaptable and at times is barbaric," he said. "(They) adjust to our tactics, techniques and procedures. We certainly do see it as an enemy that represents an ideology that does not tolerate those who do not think the way they do." Taking territory from the Taliban has always proved easier than holding it. The challenge is especially great in Helmand because it is a centre of Afghanistan's thriving opium production, and drug profits feed both the insurgency and corrupt government officials. Also Friday, U.S. troops continued looking for an American soldier believed captured by insurgents, Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo said. The soldier and three Afghans with him went missing on Tuesday in the eastern Paktika province. There was no immediate public claim of responsibility from any insurgent group. Also Friday, Russia announced that it will allow the U.S. to ship weapons across its territory to Afghanistan, providing Washington an alternative route to supply its forces in the landlocked country. - Straziuso reported from Nawa, Brummitt from Islamabad, Pakistan. Associated Press reporters Fisnik Abrashi, Amir Shah and Noor Khan also contributed to this report from Kabul. |
MSantor - July 5, 2009 11:07 PM (GMT)
Thoughts, anyone? I think this Captain Sun handled things pretty well.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090705/...ghanistan_shura
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090705/...ghanistan_shura
| QUOTE |
| Earn our trust or go, Afghan villagers tell Marines Sun Jul 5, 6:09 AM By Peter Graff SORKHDOZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The mullah's message was blunt. We don't trust you and if you don't earn our trust, our first meeting will be our last. With that, he stood abruptly and walked out of his first "shura," or council meeting, with U.S. Marines. U.S. forces who have moved deep into formerly Taliban-controlled territory in southern Afghanistan this week say they are here to stay and will not leave until they have improved the lives of ordinary people. But locals -- used to seeing NATO troops come through to fight but fail to follow through on promises of development -- may not be won over easily. This week, the Marines, sent by President Barack Obama, launched operation Strike of the Sword, one of the biggest operations by ground forces in Afghanistan since Soviet forces withdrew in 1989. Their goal has been to seize quickly the lower Helmand River valley, a Taliban stronghold and the world's biggest opium producing region, where fighters resisted advances by an overstretched British-led NATO force for years. In the village of Sorkhdoz, Foxtrot Company of the 2nd battalion, 8th Marines held their first shura with local elders on Sunday, three days after arriving on assault helicopters. No one invited them into their home. Instead, they met on the street, in the shade of the outside wall of a mud-brick compound. The company commander, Captain Junwei Sun, promised his troops were not just passing through. "This is a beautiful village. It's very peaceful. And we need to work to keep it that way," Sun said. "I know there's Taliban. They come through the village and intimidate you and intimidate your children. That's why I want you to know, we are going to stay here." PRAYER BEADS AND DEMANDS The elders listened, clicking their prayer beads. Then Mullah Zainuddin, the village's religious leader, listed their demands. They want the provincial authorities to allocate more water for their irrigation system. They want a health clinic, and they want a school. Produce these things or leave us alone, he said. "I do not trust you. There have been international forces that have come through the village and promised schools, promised clinics. When you are already (delivering) that, then I will trust you," he said. "We are out of patience here. If you do not do these things and solve these problems, we will leave this village. We will fight: every man, woman and child, we do not fear death." "This is our last speech, and if you can't solve these problems, we will not have another shura. We will not sit like this again and talk with you," he said. He then got up and walked away, leaving the Marines to finish the shura without him. Suddenly, a Marine could be heard up the road shouting "stop!" and pointing his rifle at a man driving a motorcycle with two women hidden in burqas sitting behind him on the bike. The Marine summoned an interpreter. Afghan police searched the driver and allowed the motorcycle to drive on. The village elders and the other Marines holding their shura watched the tense incident in quiet. "I know you think you are here for our security. But you have come here to disturb us," said one of the elders, Hajji Baluch. "The women on the motorcycle were on their way to a clinic." Captain Sun said he would try to persuade his men not to stop motorcycles with women. "We're still new here. We're still trying to get used to the people. Once we know the people, we'll get better," he said. In the end, they agreed to hold another shura. The Americans promised to bring officials from the agriculture ministry who would discuss providing the town with more water for irrigation. The Marines shook hands and headed back to the compound they have occupied as a combat outpost. The elders remained in the street and quietly watched them walk away. (Editing by Paul Tait and Valerie Lee) |
saver111 - July 7, 2009 06:53 AM (GMT)
7 US troops killed throughout Afghanistan
AP
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press Writer – 5 mins ago
KABUL – Bombs and bullets killed seven American troops while three NATO troops died in a helicopter crash in one of the deadliest days for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, officials said Tuesday.
Four of the deaths Monday came in an attack on a team of U.S. military trainers in the relatively peaceful north, Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, a U.S. military spokesman. The deaths brought into focus the question of whether the U.S. is committing enough troops to secure a country larger than Iraq in both population and land mass.
Separately, Taliban militants claimed on a militant Web site that they were holding an American soldier whom the U.S. military says insurgents might have captured last week. The Taliban statement, however, did not include any proof, such as a picture or the soldier's name.
Obama has ordered 21,000 additional American troops to this country, mainly in the south where Taliban militants have made a violent comeback after a U.S.-led coalition topped them from power in late 2001. The U.S. expects 68,000 troops here by year's end, double last year's total but still half as many as now in Iraq.
Two Americans were killed in a roadside blast in southern Afghanistan, Naranjo said. And another American soldier died of wounds in a Monday firefight with militants in the east, a U.S. military spokesman said. There were no further details on those incidents in the south and the east.
It was the deadliest day for American troops in Afghanistan since July 13, 2008, when 10 soldiers were killed — nine of them when militants using small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a remote outpost in the village of Wanat near the Pakistani border.
Also in the south, two Canadian and a Briton serving with the NATO-led force were killed Monday when their helicopter crashed in Zabul province, said a spokesman for the military alliance, Lt. Commander Chris Hall.
The incident was not caused by insurgent fire, Hall said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090707/ap_on_...XN0cm9vcHNraWw-
An Army Corps carry team carries the transfer case containing the remains of U.S. Army Pfc. Aaron E. Fairbairn, 20, of Aberdeen, Wash., during a dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Monday, July 6, 2009. According to the Department of Defense, Fairbairn, died July 4 at Combat Outpost Zerok, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked the outpost using small arms and indirect fires. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Honor guard carry the casket of Corporal Nick Bulger to a hearse at the Canadian Forces Base Trenton July 6, 2009. Corporal Bulger was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near an armoured vehicle in the Zhari District of Afghanistan July 3, 2009. REUTERS/Fred Thornhill (CANADA POLITICS MILITARY CONFLICT OBITUARY)
AP
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer Fisnik Abrashi, Associated Press Writer – 5 mins ago
KABUL – Bombs and bullets killed seven American troops while three NATO troops died in a helicopter crash in one of the deadliest days for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, officials said Tuesday.
Four of the deaths Monday came in an attack on a team of U.S. military trainers in the relatively peaceful north, Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, a U.S. military spokesman. The deaths brought into focus the question of whether the U.S. is committing enough troops to secure a country larger than Iraq in both population and land mass.
Separately, Taliban militants claimed on a militant Web site that they were holding an American soldier whom the U.S. military says insurgents might have captured last week. The Taliban statement, however, did not include any proof, such as a picture or the soldier's name.
Obama has ordered 21,000 additional American troops to this country, mainly in the south where Taliban militants have made a violent comeback after a U.S.-led coalition topped them from power in late 2001. The U.S. expects 68,000 troops here by year's end, double last year's total but still half as many as now in Iraq.
Two Americans were killed in a roadside blast in southern Afghanistan, Naranjo said. And another American soldier died of wounds in a Monday firefight with militants in the east, a U.S. military spokesman said. There were no further details on those incidents in the south and the east.
It was the deadliest day for American troops in Afghanistan since July 13, 2008, when 10 soldiers were killed — nine of them when militants using small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a remote outpost in the village of Wanat near the Pakistani border.
Also in the south, two Canadian and a Briton serving with the NATO-led force were killed Monday when their helicopter crashed in Zabul province, said a spokesman for the military alliance, Lt. Commander Chris Hall.
The incident was not caused by insurgent fire, Hall said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090707/ap_on_...XN0cm9vcHNraWw-
An Army Corps carry team carries the transfer case containing the remains of U.S. Army Pfc. Aaron E. Fairbairn, 20, of Aberdeen, Wash., during a dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Monday, July 6, 2009. According to the Department of Defense, Fairbairn, died July 4 at Combat Outpost Zerok, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked the outpost using small arms and indirect fires. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Honor guard carry the casket of Corporal Nick Bulger to a hearse at the Canadian Forces Base Trenton July 6, 2009. Corporal Bulger was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near an armoured vehicle in the Zhari District of Afghanistan July 3, 2009. REUTERS/Fred Thornhill (CANADA POLITICS MILITARY CONFLICT OBITUARY)
MSantor - July 7, 2009 08:14 PM (GMT)
Another update on the continuing offensive:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090707/ap_on_.../as_afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090707/ap_on_.../as_afghanistan
| QUOTE |
| Marines push militants out of Taliban region Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writer – 19 mins ago CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines trapped Taliban fighters in a residential compound and persuaded the insurgents to allow women and children to leave. The troops then moved in — only to discover that the militants had slipped out, dressed in women's burqa robes. The fighters, who may owe their lives to the new U.S. commander's emphasis on limiting civilian casualties, were among hundreds of militants who have fled the offensive the Marines launched last week in southern Helmand province. Marine officers say keeping the Taliban from returning so the Afghan government can establish a stable presence will be a bigger challenge. "We have dislocated them while still protecting the people," said Col. Eric Mellinger, the operations officer for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. "Now the key is to prevent militants from coming back in, and the way to do that is to earn their (Afghan villagers') trust so that they don't allow them to come back in." The offensive, which began Thursday when about 4,000 Marines and sailors stormed into the Helmand River valley, seeks to cut off a major Taliban supply route. The militants bring in weapons and fighters from Pakistan and ship out opium — one of their main sources of income. Before the operation, their biggest of the Afghan war, Marine commanders believed up to 1,000 insurgents were operating in the fertile valley. But most of them fled without a major battle, instead launching scattered but ineffective attacks. As a result, only one Marine has died so far in the mission, although several have been wounded. Others have collapsed from heat exhaustion after hiking for days with 50-100 pounds of food, water, weapons and ammunition in temperatures approaching 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Militants seemed keen to avoid an all-out fight with the better armed Marines. On Monday, images from a Predator drone showed a dozen fighters and at least 15 to 20 civilians inside a mud-brick compound in the village of Khan Neshin, about 60 miles north of the Pakistani border. Because of the civilians, the U.S. troops held their fire, and instead used a military translator and village elder to persuade the militants to free women and children. Two groups — children and what appeared to be women in burqas — left the compound. When the Marines entered, they found no one. The fighters had clearly donned burqas and slipped away among the civilians, according to Marines who took part in the mission. The Americans didn't have female Marines with them to search the robed figures and make sure no men were among them in disguise. And the new U.S. and NATO commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has said he would rather see militants escape than for civilians to be harmed in battle; a declassified version of his new guidelines for troops were released Monday. The ease with which the Marines moved into the Helmand Valley does not necessarily mean the area will remain quiet. Throughout the seven-year war, the Taliban have traditionally melted away in the face of overwhelming force only to re-emerge, using traditional guerrilla tactics such as roadside bombs, ambushes and suicide attacks. For years, Helmand has proved to be one of the toughest regions to tame. Some 8,000 to 9,000 British troops have been in Helmand since 2006, but the force has been too small to control the militant-infested province about 325 miles southwest of Kabul. The U.S. deployment in southern Helmand will help British troops concentrate their efforts in the central and northern areas of the province. Helmand is Afghanistan's biggest province and was once known as its breadbasket. Today it produces more than half the country's opium. Tribal rivalries for control of the lucrative trade have contributed to instability which the Taliban exploited. That will make it difficult for the Afghan government to establish a long-term presence that will guarantee stability, experts believe. "I think the biggest challenge will be holding the area over the long run. In my view, successful holding will require careful dialogue with a range of key tribes in Helmand," said Seth Jones, an analyst for the RAND Corp. "The central government has never been able to establish order in rural Helmand, let alone other areas of Afghanistan," he said. Jones suggested the Marines seek alliances with the two main tribes in the area who have demonstrated "a willingness to fight the Taliban." "It does not appear that the Marines have adopted this approach — at least yet," Jones said. Mellinger said the U.S. presence will also disrupt the opium industry, because militants will no longer be able to intimidate farmers into growing poppy. He said Afghans understand that growing poppies is "intrinsically wrong." Now that the Marines are in place, Mellinger said other U.S. agencies can come in and help farmers grow wheat and other traditional crops. This year's poppy harvest is already in, but the Marines should help stem the flow of opium and heroin from Helmand. The Marine mission is the largest U.S. operation since President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. forces to Afghanistan this year. The total U.S. presence here will rise to a record 68,000 troops later this summer — more than twice the 32,000 in the country last year. The 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade should be in Helmand for another six or eight months — allowing villagers to vote in the Aug. 20 presidential election — and another Marine unit will come in afterward, Mellinger said. After that, the U.S. hopes Afghan forces can provide security. Right now, only about 500 Afghan security forces are participating in the operation alongside the 4,000 Marines. |
MSantor - July 8, 2009 06:24 PM (GMT)
Shouldn't have the Afghan National Army (ANA) been rebuilt to a respectable size by now?
| QUOTE |
Allied Officers Concerned by Lack of Afghan Forces, NY Times  NAWA, Afghanistan — One week after several battalions of Marines swept through the Helmand River valley, military commanders appear increasingly concerned about a lack of Afghan forces in the field. “What I need is more Afghans,” said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marine expeditionary brigade in Helmand Province. He accompanied the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, during a visit with troops at Patrol Base Jaker here on Monday. General Nicholson and others say that the long-term success of the operation hinges on the performance of the Afghan security forces, which will have to take over eventually from the American troops. General Nicholson said the American force of almost 4,000 had been joined by about 400 effective Afghan soldiers. “The net increase in Afghan security forces is zero” since the brigade arrived a few months ago, he said. The lack of Afghan forces “is absolutely our Achilles’ heel,” added Capt. Brian Huysman, commander of Company C of the First Battalion, Fifth Marines in Nawa. Captain Huysman said the Afghan forces were critically important in establishing trust and communication with citizens. “We can’t read these people; we’re different,” he said. “They’re not going to tell us the truth. We’ll never get to build and transition” — the last phase of the operation — “unless we have the Afghans.” American military officials say they want at least a full brigade of Afghan forces in Helmand, thousands more than are here now. NATO forces said Tuesday that three foreign soldiers, two Canadians and a Briton, died in a helicopter crash in the southern province of Zabul on Monday, already the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan in nearly a year. Of seven United States soldiers killed Monday, said Capt. Jon Stock, an American military spokesman, six died in bomb explosions and one in a firefight. The Marine operation that began last week appeared to overwhelm the Taliban fighters who have long dominated this region, which provides a large part of the raw opium the Taliban use to finance operations throughout the country. But commanders believe that the Taliban made a calculated decision to retreat, leaving the Marines with little resistance so far. For now, many Taliban are believed to have pulled back to more remote locations, like Marjah, a village west of here, to regroup and try to figure out how to reassert themselves in an area so crucial to financing their guerrilla campaign. “This is the engine that drives the Taliban,” General Nicholson said, referring to the lush canal- fed land along the Helmand River that produces much of Afghanistan’s opium poppy crop. At the meeting in Nawa, General McChrystal asked for input from the assembled officers. A British Army officer, Maj. Rob Gallimore, who leads a team training Afghan soldiers, responded bluntly: While the success of the weeklong operation had been “staggering,” he said, he was worried what would happen if the necessary complement of Afghan forces did not materialize. “To drop it by a lack of men would be criminal,” he said. General McChrystal emphasized that the operation needed to show the local people quickly that they had more to gain from life without the Taliban than with them. The military “got a lot of fanfare” during the initial push last week, the general said, and now has to deliver on its promises. “Militarily, you can think you can control areas, but sociologically if you don’t control them, you’re not going to be able to do what we need to do here,” he said. General Nicholson added that the operation had a “narrow window of opportunity.” In a month, he said, the people will say you “came in and chased the Taliban away.” “But how is my life better? How is your presence benefiting me and my family?” Abdul Waheed Wafa and Muhibullah Habibi contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan. |
saver111 - July 10, 2009 05:07 AM (GMT)
US troops in Afghanistan face tough battle: Making 'clear, hold, and build' work
By Anand Gopal Anand Gopal – Wed Jul 8, 5:00 am ET
Jaghatu, Afghanistan – Part 2 of a two-part series.
As the US sends more troops to Afghanistan to try to reverse the growing violence, they are relying on the "clear, hold, build" model of counterinsurgency. The US hopes a surge of soldiers will help them clear areas of Taliban insurgents, maintain a lasting presence in those areas to keep militants from returning, and then bring development to attract popular support.
But soldiers in Wardak Province say that the model has been difficult to implement in here. In particular, they say they are caught in a vicious circle: To win over the locals, the troops must bring development, security, and economic prospects. To do this, they have to diminish the presence of the insurgency. But this, in turn, requires that the troops win support of the population.
US forces have already made some progress in the first phase of the strategy. The stretch of the Kabul-Kandahar highway that runs through Wardak, once a magnet for insurgents, has been free of Taliban checkpoints for months. The guerrilla presence along the route had gotten so bad that fuel convoys suffered almost daily attacks.
Along one stretch of the highway, a 90-minute insurgent ambush earlier this year destroyed nearly 40 transport trucks. Such an incident would be highly unlikely now because of the frequent American patrols along the route.
"The main highway is much safer now," says Roshanak Wardak, a member of parliament from Sayadabad district of Wardak. "It used to be extremely dangerous, but now the Taliban have been pushed off it."
Hard to build rapport from an outpost
But the clearing phase of the strategy may be the easiest. Soldiers say they will need patiently to build rapport, something that might take months or years, if at all.
"We just have to earn their trust," says Staff Sgt. Adam Kapchus of the 10th Mountain Division. "We need to support clinics and support their economy."
To do so, the troops have been making an effort to visit villages.
"How is traffic? Have cars been coming through here and bringing business?" a soldier on a typical patrol asks one merchant, who says business is "OK."
"Have you seen any bad guys here?" the soldier continues.
"No sir. The bad people stay in the mountains," the merchant says, pointing to the purple peaks in the distance.
"That's good. Is there any way we can help you?" the soldier asks.
"Your helicopters fly overhead all night," the merchant says. "No one in our village can sleep. Please stop this – it is causing major problems."
The soldier promises to tell his superiors.
Despite such patrols, the troops generally don't have enough contact with the locals to convince them that they are here for their good, says Habibullah Rafeh, policy analyst with the Kabul Academy of Sciences. Most of the troops live in small, heavily fortified outposts near urban centers. Most Afghans, however, live in rural areas – only 0.5 percent of Wardak's population is urban, for example.
"The local village people view the Americans as occupiers, not as allies," Mr. Rafeh says. "Many don't have direct contact with the Americans, but almost everyone in those areas feel the Taliban presence."
To meet such challenges, the new commander of US forces in the country, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is pushing for an approach that has troops living among the communities they are meant to protect. Soldiers will live in smaller outposts, embedded amid the local population — a tactic that some credit with helping improve the situation in Iraq.
But some warn that extreme caution is needed for such a strategy to succeed. In a culture that prizes privacy, troops have to be careful not to inflame local sensitivities by their presence, says Dr. Wardak. "The people in my district complained to me after the Americans set up a base near their houses," she says, "because they were worried that the soldiers will look into their homes or that they will be caught in a crossfire."
Insurgents displaced, but still active
Even when the guerrillas are pushed out of one area, abandoning it to the Americans, they usually reassemble in an adjacent area, US military officials here say. Insurgents have been largely dislodged from Jalrez District, for instance, but some have regrouped in neighboring areas.
In other cases, the US has enough forces to capture only a district center. In Jaghatu District, Taliban forces had run the area as a fiefdom, complete with a court and administrative apparatus. The district government had fled, leaving a cluster of four ramshackle buildings that makes up the capital, called the district "center."
In mid-May, American forces entered and occupied the district center, displacing the insurgents. They set up a makeshift camp among the devastated buildings – one pockmarked structure, ravaged by frequent mortar fire, is an abandoned school, while another is an empty office. A small contingent of Afghan police and Army took up residence in the other buildings.
Together, this combined force is able to maintain control of the district center, but the Taliban still enjoy sovereignty in the surrounding countryside, according to residents. When an American patrol visits these areas, the insurgents melt into the surroundings, sometimes waiting to ambush the soldiers, other times waiting to fight another day.
'Nastier before it gets better'
Military officials here say they are still in the process of clearing most areas of insurgents.
"Creating a lasting presence in Sayadabad is going to be hard," says an American intelligence officer associated with the forces here, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Maybe Jalrez is the only district that we can hold and build by the end of our deployment," which is scheduled for the end of this year, she says.
In Sayadabad and other areas, fighting is growing more intense as the summer months arrive. "It's going to get nastier before it gets better," she says.
Mortar fire regularly hits Sayadabad's Combat Outpost Carwile, which sits close to Jaghatu District. Improvised explosive devices, such as roadside bombs, go off almost daily on the main highways here. In May, the unit suffered its first losses – a Taliban ambush killed two soldiers as they were on a foot patrol.
Civilians have been feeling the toll of war as well. In the midst of a recent firefight with insurgents, troops mistakenly shot a vehicle full of civilians, killing one and wounding others. Earlier this year, the Taliban abducted two interpreters who worked for the troops. There have also been some demonstrations against the troop presence .
Small victories
The troops admit there are no easy solutions. In the meantime, some soldiers are finding their own ways to win hearts and minds.
Pfc. Joshua Lipori has decided to learn Pashto, the prevalent language here. While standing on guard duty one day at a combat outpost in Sayadabad, he practices his fledgling Pashto with some passing locals.
"Tsenga Ye?" or "How are you?" he asks. "Jore Ye?" – "Are you doing OK?"
The Afghans stare in wide-eyed astonishment at the foreign soldier speaking their tongue. They whisper to each other in Pashto.
"See," one says to the other, "there are some good Americans."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090708/wl_csm/osurge2
By Anand Gopal Anand Gopal – Wed Jul 8, 5:00 am ET
Jaghatu, Afghanistan – Part 2 of a two-part series.
As the US sends more troops to Afghanistan to try to reverse the growing violence, they are relying on the "clear, hold, build" model of counterinsurgency. The US hopes a surge of soldiers will help them clear areas of Taliban insurgents, maintain a lasting presence in those areas to keep militants from returning, and then bring development to attract popular support.
But soldiers in Wardak Province say that the model has been difficult to implement in here. In particular, they say they are caught in a vicious circle: To win over the locals, the troops must bring development, security, and economic prospects. To do this, they have to diminish the presence of the insurgency. But this, in turn, requires that the troops win support of the population.
US forces have already made some progress in the first phase of the strategy. The stretch of the Kabul-Kandahar highway that runs through Wardak, once a magnet for insurgents, has been free of Taliban checkpoints for months. The guerrilla presence along the route had gotten so bad that fuel convoys suffered almost daily attacks.
Along one stretch of the highway, a 90-minute insurgent ambush earlier this year destroyed nearly 40 transport trucks. Such an incident would be highly unlikely now because of the frequent American patrols along the route.
"The main highway is much safer now," says Roshanak Wardak, a member of parliament from Sayadabad district of Wardak. "It used to be extremely dangerous, but now the Taliban have been pushed off it."
Hard to build rapport from an outpost
But the clearing phase of the strategy may be the easiest. Soldiers say they will need patiently to build rapport, something that might take months or years, if at all.
"We just have to earn their trust," says Staff Sgt. Adam Kapchus of the 10th Mountain Division. "We need to support clinics and support their economy."
To do so, the troops have been making an effort to visit villages.
"How is traffic? Have cars been coming through here and bringing business?" a soldier on a typical patrol asks one merchant, who says business is "OK."
"Have you seen any bad guys here?" the soldier continues.
"No sir. The bad people stay in the mountains," the merchant says, pointing to the purple peaks in the distance.
"That's good. Is there any way we can help you?" the soldier asks.
"Your helicopters fly overhead all night," the merchant says. "No one in our village can sleep. Please stop this – it is causing major problems."
The soldier promises to tell his superiors.
Despite such patrols, the troops generally don't have enough contact with the locals to convince them that they are here for their good, says Habibullah Rafeh, policy analyst with the Kabul Academy of Sciences. Most of the troops live in small, heavily fortified outposts near urban centers. Most Afghans, however, live in rural areas – only 0.5 percent of Wardak's population is urban, for example.
"The local village people view the Americans as occupiers, not as allies," Mr. Rafeh says. "Many don't have direct contact with the Americans, but almost everyone in those areas feel the Taliban presence."
To meet such challenges, the new commander of US forces in the country, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is pushing for an approach that has troops living among the communities they are meant to protect. Soldiers will live in smaller outposts, embedded amid the local population — a tactic that some credit with helping improve the situation in Iraq.
But some warn that extreme caution is needed for such a strategy to succeed. In a culture that prizes privacy, troops have to be careful not to inflame local sensitivities by their presence, says Dr. Wardak. "The people in my district complained to me after the Americans set up a base near their houses," she says, "because they were worried that the soldiers will look into their homes or that they will be caught in a crossfire."
Insurgents displaced, but still active
Even when the guerrillas are pushed out of one area, abandoning it to the Americans, they usually reassemble in an adjacent area, US military officials here say. Insurgents have been largely dislodged from Jalrez District, for instance, but some have regrouped in neighboring areas.
In other cases, the US has enough forces to capture only a district center. In Jaghatu District, Taliban forces had run the area as a fiefdom, complete with a court and administrative apparatus. The district government had fled, leaving a cluster of four ramshackle buildings that makes up the capital, called the district "center."
In mid-May, American forces entered and occupied the district center, displacing the insurgents. They set up a makeshift camp among the devastated buildings – one pockmarked structure, ravaged by frequent mortar fire, is an abandoned school, while another is an empty office. A small contingent of Afghan police and Army took up residence in the other buildings.
Together, this combined force is able to maintain control of the district center, but the Taliban still enjoy sovereignty in the surrounding countryside, according to residents. When an American patrol visits these areas, the insurgents melt into the surroundings, sometimes waiting to ambush the soldiers, other times waiting to fight another day.
'Nastier before it gets better'
Military officials here say they are still in the process of clearing most areas of insurgents.
"Creating a lasting presence in Sayadabad is going to be hard," says an American intelligence officer associated with the forces here, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Maybe Jalrez is the only district that we can hold and build by the end of our deployment," which is scheduled for the end of this year, she says.
In Sayadabad and other areas, fighting is growing more intense as the summer months arrive. "It's going to get nastier before it gets better," she says.
Mortar fire regularly hits Sayadabad's Combat Outpost Carwile, which sits close to Jaghatu District. Improvised explosive devices, such as roadside bombs, go off almost daily on the main highways here. In May, the unit suffered its first losses – a Taliban ambush killed two soldiers as they were on a foot patrol.
Civilians have been feeling the toll of war as well. In the midst of a recent firefight with insurgents, troops mistakenly shot a vehicle full of civilians, killing one and wounding others. Earlier this year, the Taliban abducted two interpreters who worked for the troops. There have also been some demonstrations against the troop presence .
Small victories
The troops admit there are no easy solutions. In the meantime, some soldiers are finding their own ways to win hearts and minds.
Pfc. Joshua Lipori has decided to learn Pashto, the prevalent language here. While standing on guard duty one day at a combat outpost in Sayadabad, he practices his fledgling Pashto with some passing locals.
"Tsenga Ye?" or "How are you?" he asks. "Jore Ye?" – "Are you doing OK?"
The Afghans stare in wide-eyed astonishment at the foreign soldier speaking their tongue. They whisper to each other in Pashto.
"See," one says to the other, "there are some good Americans."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090708/wl_csm/osurge2
MSantor - July 10, 2009 06:05 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| By ALASTAIR GRANT and DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer Alastair Grant And David Stringer, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 18 mins ago (...) Nine British soldiers have been killed in volatile southern Helmand province in the past nine days amid a new offensive to uproot Taliban fighters. Seven years after British forces first deployed to Afghanistan — and after the loss of 178 troops — ex-military chiefs are criticizing tactics and equipment while members of the public wonder about the benefit of taking part in the conflict. Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth and Prime Minister Gordon Brown claim that Britain's role in Afghanistan is crucial to root out extremist terrorists who could potentially attack the United Kingdom, and to prevent a tide of Afghan heroin from reaching British streets.Michael Clarke, head of London-based military think tank the Royal United Services Institute, said public concern is mounting and urged politicians to be more honest about Britain's initial reasons for joining the 2001 invasion. "What they won't really say is that it's about the credibility of the NATO alliance, and our military relationship with the United States," Clarke said. The defense ministry said that the two latest casualties died in separate incidents Thursday. Nine soldiers have died since last Wednesday, as the country's 8,000 troops mount missions to tackle insurgents before elections planned for next month. Some critics say that Britain should either withdraw from the mission, or that troops must be provided with better equipment, including more helicopters. Britain, the United States and Canada have long complained that they have engaged in heavy fighting in Afghanistan while some European nations have shied away from combat roles. (...) Gen. Charles Guthrie, the head of Britain's military between 1997 and 2001, said he believes British soldiers have died as a direct result of a shortage of helicopters for troops in Afghanistan. British troops are suffering heavy casualties from roadside bombs, and a lack of helicopters mean soldiers must make more journey across Helmand by road. (...) Britain's defense ministry declined to disclose how many helicopters Britain has in Afghanistan on security grounds, but said additional aircraft are being sent to support the mission. |
MSantor - July 12, 2009 02:36 PM (GMT)
It seems these latest casualties occurred during the Marine offensive in Helmand.
RIP Marines.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090712/ap_on_.../as_afghanistan
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| 4 US Marines killed in Afghan bomb blasts Jason Straziuso, Associated Press Writer – 22 mins ago KABUL – Bomb blasts killed four U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan, where thousands of American troops have deployed in recent weeks as part of an offensive in the country's dangerous drug-producing region, an official said Sunday. The four Marines died Saturday in Helmand province, where about 4,000 troops this month launched the largest Marine operation in Afghanistan since 2001. U.S. forces have met little resistance but face the danger of roadside bombs everywhere they travel. A fifth U.S. service member wounded in June died of wounds in the U.S. on Friday, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, who confirmed the deaths of the four Marines. The four killed Saturday were initially identified as Army soldiers. The five deaths bring to 106 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year — a record pace. Last year 151 U.S. troops died in the country. The U.S. casualties come on the heels of eight British deaths in Helmand during a 24-hour period that ended Friday, deaths that have triggered a debate in Britain about its role in Afghanistan. Britain has now lost more troops in Afghanistan than it did in Iraq. President Barack Obama called Britain's contribution critically important in an interview with Sky News broadcast Sunday . "My heart goes out to the families of those British soldiers," he said. "Great Britain has played an extraordinary role in this coalition, understanding that we cannot allow either Afghanistan or Pakistan to be a safe haven for al-Qaida, those who with impunity blow up train stations in London or buildings in New York." Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan earlier this year to help quell an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. Some 10,000 Marines and 4,000 soldiers from the Stryker Brigade — the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based in Fort Lewis, Washington — are deploying in the south, the Taliban's spiritual birthplace and stronghold. The troops are expected to help provide security for the country's August presidential election and help train army and police units who U.S. officials hope can one day provide security for the country. In other violence around the country, international troops and Afghan police killed 12 Taliban insurgents in a gunbattle in southern Afghanistan, police said Sunday. The joint force attacked a compound north of the capital of Uruzgan province where the militants were hiding Saturday evening, sparking the fighting, police spokesman Mohammad Musa said. He said no Afghan police or international troops were killed. In eastern Kunar province, meanwhile, one civilian was killed and five wounded when shelling from a gunbattle between insurgents and Afghan and international forces hit a house. Provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal said everyone in the house initially survived Saturday's blast, but one man died from his injuries after being rushed to a hospital. Jalal said it was unclear which side fired the shots that hit the house. Also Saturday, at least six police officers were killed by roadside bombs — two in southern Helmand province and at least four south of Kabul in Logar province, officials said. In Logar, the officers were driving in a private car in Charkh district when the explosion hit, said provincial police chief Gen. Mustafa Mosseini. NATO forces, who secured the site and treated one wounded officer, said in a statement that four police were killed. Mosseini said five officers died. The bombing in Helmand took place Saturday night in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, killing two police and wounding three, said Dawood Ahmadi, the governor's spokesman. Police officers are regular targets of Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan. Mosseini said the officers had been traveling in a civilian car in order to avoid drawing the attention of potential attackers. In another gunbattle in eastern Paktia province between insurgents and Afghan police, two militants and one police officer were killed, said Rahullah Samon, a spokesman for the governor. ___ Associated Press writers Amir Shah in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report. |
MSantor - July 12, 2009 07:09 PM (GMT)
Good. Canadian General Vance, the top CF officer in afghanistan, says the Taliban are "in disarray" due to the current Allied offensive.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090712/...fghan_cda_vance
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090712/...fghan_cda_vance
| QUOTE |
| Afghan insurgents in 'disarray' as coalition advances, says Canadian general 59 minutes ago By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Mounting casualties and unprecedented numbers of roadside bomb attacks are more a reflection of increased activity by the international coalition than a sign of a strengthening insurgency, Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan says. In fact, Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance says, the Taliban-led insurgency is in "disarray." "Yes, there are times when we take killed or wounded in action, but it pales in comparison to the killed and wounded that the insurgency has taken when facing us," said Vance, commander of Canada's joint task force Kandahar. "Part of the reason for their disarray is that much of their leadership has been eradicated," Vance said in a weekend interview with The Canadian Press. Based on polls and informal feedback, Vance said, the security situation in Kandahar province has improved since February 2008. Both the Afghan army and national police force are showing an increased ability to function effectively on their own, while some areas - such as the largely peaceful Dand district just south of Kandahar city - are rendering the insurgency irrelevant, Vance said. The comments come against a backdrop of an increasingly bloody confrontation between the uniformed soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force and insurgents. Effective roadside bomb attacks on coalition forces - those that kill or injure - have more than tripled over the past two years and have set monthly records for the past four months, according to the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization. Last month, 23 coalition troops were killed - among them two Canadians - while a third Canadian died this month of injuries sustained in a June explosion. More British soldiers have now died in Afghanistan than have in Iraq. Several other Canadian soldiers were wounded in June, although the Canadian military refuses to provide statistics. Vance, a 45-year-old married father of a five-year-old, said the higher casualty figures reflect the fact that coalition forces are taking the battle into Taliban strongholds in unprecedented numbers. "They are going to places where the insurgency hasn't been attacked in force before and in the process of doing that, your soldiers get hurt and killed - at a rate far lower, I might add, than the Taliban." Overall, the total number of incidents involving roadside bombs reached 736 in June, up from 234 in June 2007. Incidents include attacks that kill or wound coalition troops, ineffective attacks as well as improvised explosive devices that are found and neutralized. "IEDs are dangerous," Vance said. "I'm not downplaying the fact that the insurgency has used them to effect against us. I hate IEDs. But it's not going to stop us." The general, who visits his troops in the field, has had close and personal encounters with the roadside bombs himself - including one that killed one of his bodyguards a few weeks ago. Vance said the often grim news surrounding casualties makes it more difficult to see the gains that have been made by the coalition. However, he did concede the allied forces have yet to break the back of the insurgency. "Words like stalemate or standoff are near reflective," he said. At this stage, he said, it is critical for the international community, particularly the Americans, to focus heavily on Afghanistan. The current number of soldiers on the ground isn't enough to speed up the gradual progress that is being made. The general said Canadians have to remember progress in the war cannot be measured by the number of soldiers killed, because the purpose of the mission is to protect Afghans and help the country onto its feet. That, he said, would be an enormous challenge even without the insurgency. "It's a shattered place - physically, morally, broken - but has shown in the past the ability to rebound," he said. "I see the ability to rebound present, and the potential, everywhere I go." |
MSantor - July 14, 2009 06:39 AM (GMT)
So far no further details on what specific nationality that crashed helo belonged to, or of the number of casualties or the cause of the crash, though the Taliban have claimed they shot down a Chinook.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090714/...ghanistan_crash
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090714/...ghanistan_crash
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| Foreign forces' helicopter crashes in Afghanistan 35 minutes ago By Ismail Sameem KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A military helicopter used by foreign troops crashed on Tuesday in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, scene of a massive operation by U.S. Marines, officials said. A spokesman for the British military in Helmand, part of the NATO-led force, confirmed the crash, but could not give details about a cause or casualties. "We are aware of an incident involving a non-British military helicopter in Helmand province," Lieutenant-Colonel Nick Richardson told Reuters by phone from the province. An investigation had been launched to determine the cause of the crash in Sangin district, he said. The Taliban, leading the insurgency against foreign troops and the Afghan government, said the militant group had shot down a Chinook helicopter in Helmand. Sangin's district chief Fazlul Haq said he saw a chopper on fire before it crashed. "It was in the sky on fire and then went down," he told a Reuters reporter in the south. Tuesday's crash comes amid an offensive by some 4,000 U.S. Marines and hundreds of NATO and Afghan forces in various parts of Helmand against the Taliban, the biggest by foreign troops since they ousted the Islamist group in 2001. (...) |
MSantor - July 16, 2009 10:40 PM (GMT)
Update: Gates says more US troops could be going to Afghanistan.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090716/ap_on_..._st_pe/us_gates
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090716/ap_on_..._st_pe/us_gates
| QUOTE |
| Gates: More US troops could head to Afghanistan Lara Jakes, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 4 mins ago FORT DRUM, N.Y. – The Pentagon's chief said Thursday he could send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year than he'd initially expected and is considering increasing the number of soldiers in the Army. Both issues reflect demands on increasingly stressed American forces tasked with fighting two wars. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' comments came during a short visit to Fort Drum in upstate New York — an Army post that that he said has deployed more soldiers to battle zones over the last 20 years than any other unit. Two Fort Drum brigades are headed to Iraq later this year, and a third is currently in Afghanistan. Asked about Afghanistan by one soldier, Gates said, "I think there will not be a significant increase in troop levels in Afghanistan beyond the 68,000, at least probably through the end of the year. Maybe some increase, but not a lot." So far, the Obama administration has approved sending 68,000 troops to Afghanistan by the end of 2009, including 21,000 that were added this spring. The White House has wanted to wait until the end of the year before deciding whether to deploy more, but a defense official said Thursday that Gates does not want to discourage his new commander in Kabul, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, from taking a frank look at how many troops he needs. McChrystal, who took over as commander for all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan last month, is expected to advise Washington in the next few weeks on his views of how to end, and win, the 8-year war. McChrystal is nearing the end of a 60-day review of troop requirements in Afghanistan, and will soon provide that report to Gates. The former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, had told Obama that he needed an additional 10,000 troops, beyond the 68,000. The White House had put off that decision until the end of this year. Gates and other military leaders have said they are reluctant to send many more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, because of concerns that a large American footprint there could appear to Afghans as an occupying force. During a question-and-answer session with soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, Gates also said he is looking at beefing up the Army with more troops. He did not say by how many, or what the plan would cost, but predicted that he'll decide as early as next week. "We are very mindful of stress on the force," he said. Most of the 200 soldiers in the short town hall-style meeting are headed to Iraq later this fall. Their commander, Maj. Gen. Mike Oates, returned from his third tour in Iraq only 50 days ago and said he is working to easing stress on soldiers and their family members who have faced a seemingly revolving door of deployments since 2001. "What we're trying to do is help everybody receive this stress and deal with it better," Oates told reporters. "And there's a lot of room for growth there." Gates stopped at Fort Drum on his way to Chicago, where he is expected to give a feisty speech Thursday evening hammering Congress for trying to tack on billions of dollars for additional F-22 fighter jets to the Pentagon's 2010 spending plan. The Senate is debating whether to add $1.75 billion to the half-trillion dollar budget to buy more jets that supporters say will better protect the United States and save jobs in the faltering economy. Meanwhile, the House has voted to spend $369 million more as a down payment on 12 additional jets. Speaking to reporters aboard his plane to Chicago, Gates would not link the F-22 spending directly to the costs that will be needed to grow the Army. But he called Congress' demands "a zero-sum game." "A dollar for something we don't need is a dollar taken away from something we do need," Gates told reporters. "And we've got a lot we need." He predicted the Senate vote on the funds will be close but noted President Barack Obama's threat to veto the added money should it be approved. |
MSantor - July 18, 2009 02:31 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| U.S. Fighter Crashes in Afghanistan By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: July 17, 2009 Filed at 11:56 p.m. ET KABUL (AP) -- A U.S. military F-15E fighter jet crashed in Afghanistan early Saturday, killing two crew members, a U.S. military spokesman said. U.S. military spokesman Col. Greg Julian said a second fighter aircraft traveling with the jet that went down saw no evidence of enemy fire. No fighter jets have crashed in Afghanistan in years. Militants are able to shoot down helicopters with rockets, but are not known to have the anti-aircraft weaponry necessary to bring down a high-flying jet. The military says the F-15E crashed in eastern Afghanistan at about 3:15 a.m. Saturday Kabul time. The military did not immediately say where in Afghanistan the jet crashed. Many areas of eastern Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan, are filled with craggy mountains. The crash will be investigated by a board of officers, the military said. |
MSantor - July 18, 2009 08:57 PM (GMT)
I suppose something like this is quite common at checkpoints? Speeding vehicles which seem like suicide car bombs which need to be fired upon?
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090718/...civilian_killed
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090718/...civilian_killed
| QUOTE |
| Three others hurt as soldiers fire on car speeding toward bomb disposal team Sat Jul 18, 1:08 PM By Dene Moore, The Canadian Press KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canadian soldiers shot and killed an Afghan civilian and wounded three others Friday after the car they were in failed to heed orders to stop as it sped towards a team of troops who were defusing a roadside bomb. Canadian Forces spokesman Mario Couture said soldiers were called in by Afghan National Police to defuse a bomb in a residential area. They'd cordoned off a secure area when a vehicle breached the perimeter at high speed. The driver of the vehicle failed to heed shouts, hand signals and warning shots, Couture said. Fearing a suicide bomber, he said two soldiers opened fire. "It was obvious there was a cordon," Couture said. "There were soldiers waving. They had many chances to stop the vehicle because there were many signals used." He said the vehicle was driving at high speed and showed no intention of slowing down - telltale signs of past suicide attacks. The Canadian soldiers had parked their armoured vehicles across the roads, and soldiers were on patrolling on foot. "They followed all the proper procedures," said Couture, who described the split-second decision to open fire on a potentially threatening vehicle as one that soldiers have to make under intense pressure. "It's a decision you have to make very quickly. It doesn't leave you much choice but to open fire, to at least immobilize the vehicle and that's what they tried to do.... But until that vehicle is stopped, it's still a threat." No explosives were found in the vehicle, but Couture said the military is not convinced the men involved are not insurgents. "Although we didn't find any explosives in the vehicle, we're still not convinced these guys were not testing our procedures on how to breach our perimeter." The injured men were taken to Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar. Troops remain on high alert in southern Afghanistan, where both NATO troops and insurgents have been very active so far this summer. The U.S. and Britain have both undertaken major offensives in neighbouring Helmand province to rout out the Taliban. Afghan National Army corps commander Shair Mohammad Zazai said Saturday that insurgents, too, are out in force ahead of next month's presidential and provincial council elections. "They just want to prove that they are present," he said. A massive influx of U.S. troops to Afghanistan - in particular to the hot spots of Helmand and Kandahar provinces - has led to a surge in counter-insurgency operations. The Afghan National Police and the National Investigation Service are looking into the incident. Civilian deaths have severely hampered NATO forces in their efforts to win over Afghans in the nearly eight-year war. Earlier this month, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in the country, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, issued a directive to "mitigate that risk wherever possible." The directive asks troops to limit their use of force - particularly air strikes - in locations likely to produce civilian casualties. Civilian casualties, it said, "in the long run make mission success more difficult and turn the Afghan people against us." But the directive does not prevent troops from protecting their own lives. Couture said the Canadian soldiers involved in the incident followed procedure and were ultimately "forced to open fire." "It's one of those things where if you don't shoot, it could be you. It's a few-seconds decision of what to do." |
MSantor - July 19, 2009 05:09 AM (GMT)
What a crappy situation for him to be in. :wow:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090719/ap_on_...oldier_captured
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090719/ap_on_...oldier_captured
| QUOTE |
| By PAMELA HESS and LOLITA BALDOR, Associated Press Writers Pamela Hess And Lolita Baldor, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 17 mins ago WASHINGTON – The American soldier who went missing June 30 from his base in eastern Afghanistan and was later confirmed to have been captured, appeared on a video posted Saturday to a Web site by the Taliban. Two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the man in the video is the captured soldier. The video provides the first glimpse the public has had of the missing soldier. The soldier is shown in the 28-minute video with his head shaved and the start of a beard. He is sitting and dressed in a nondescript, gray outfit. Early in the video one of his captors holds the soldier's dog tag up to the camera. His name and ID number are clearly visible. He is shown eating at one point and sitting cross-legged. The soldier, whose identity has not yet been released by the Pentagon pending notification of members of Congress and the soldier's family, says his name, age and hometown on the video, which was released Saturday on a Web site pointed out by the Taliban. The soldier said the date is July 14. He says he was captured when he lagged behind on a patrol. He is interviewed in English by his captors, and he is asked his views on the war, which he calls extremely hard, his desire to learn more about Islam and the morale of American soldiers, which he said was low. Asked how he was doing, the soldier said on the video: "Well I'm scared, scared I won't be able to go home. It is very unnerving to be a prisoner." He begins to answer questions in a matter-of-fact and sober voice, occasionally facing the camera, looking down and sometimes looking to the questioner on his left. He later chokes up when discussing his family and his hope to marry his girlfriend. "I have my girlfriend, who is hoping to marry," he said. "I have a very, very good family that I love back home in America. And I miss them every day when I'm gone. I miss them and I'm afraid that I might not ever see them again and that I'll never be able to tell them that I love them again and I'll never be able to hug them." He is also prompted by his interrogators to give a message to the American people. "To my fellow Americans who have loved ones over here, who know what it's like to miss them, you have the power to make our government bring them home," he said. "Please, please bring us home so that we can be back where we belong and not over here, wasting our time and our lives and our precious life that we could be using back in our own country. Please bring us home. It is America and American people who have that power." The video is not a continuous recording — it appears to stop and start during the questioning. It is unclear from the video whether the July 14 date is authentic. The soldier says that he heard that a Chinook helicopter carrying 37 NATO troops had been shot down over Helmand. A helicopter was shot down in southern Afghanistan on July 14, but it was carrying civilians on a reported humanitarian mission for NATO forces. All six Ukrainian passengers died in the crash, and a child on the ground was killed. On July 2, the U.S. military said an American soldier had disappeared after walking off his base in eastern Afghanistan with three Afghan counterparts and was believed to have been taken prisoner. A U.S. defense official said the soldier was noticed missing during a routine check of the unit on June 30 and was first listed as "duty status whereabouts unknown." Details of such incidents are routinely held very tightly by the military as it works to retrieve a missing or captured soldier without giving away any information to captors. But Afghan Police Gen. Nabi Mullakheil said the soldier went missing in eastern Paktika province near the border with Pakistan from an American base. The region is known to be Taliban-infested. The most important insurgent group operating in that area is known as Haqqani network and is led by warlord Siraj Haqqani, whom the U.S. has accused of masterminding beheadings and suicide bombings including the July 2008 attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul that killed some 60 people. The Haqqani group also was linked to an assassination attempt on Afghan president Hamid Karzai early last year. On Saturday, a U.S. military official in Kabul, Col. Greg Julian, said the U.S. was "still doing everything we can to return him safely." Julian said U.S. troops had distributed two flyers in the area where the soldier disappeared. One of them asked for information on the missing soldier and offered a $25,000 reward for his return. The other said "please return our soldier safely" or "we will hunt you," according to Julian. ___ Associated Press writers Robert H. Reid in Kabul and Christine Simmons in Washington contributed to this report. |
MSantor - July 19, 2009 01:36 PM (GMT)
RIP Digger (slang term for Australian Soldier). :salute:
| QUOTE |
| Australian Soldier Killed in Afghanistan, 11th Death Since 2001 By Jacob Greber Article Link July 19 (Bloomberg) -- An Australian soldier was killed and another seriously wounded by an explosive device in Afghanistan, the Department of Defence said. Three Afghan civilians including an eight year-old boy were also hurt in the blast, which occurred early yesterday during an operation “against a compound of interest” in the Baluchi Valley north of Tarin Kowt, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston told reporters in Canberra today. The dead 22-year-old, who wasn’t immediately identified, is the 11th Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan, the military said in a statement on its Web site. Australia has about 1,550 soldiers under NATO command in Afghanistan. Fighting in the country “will become more fierce as the summer progresses,” Defence Minister John Faulkner said today. More on link |
MSantor - July 20, 2009 02:01 PM (GMT)
Another Tornado crash- this time in Afghanistan. And fortunately the pilots ejected safely this time.
I am not sure if the Tornado was an RAF one, though I am also not sure if there were that many Italian or German ones in Afghanistan.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/07/20/n...n-crash845.html
I am not sure if the Tornado was an RAF one, though I am also not sure if there were that many Italian or German ones in Afghanistan.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/07/20/n...n-crash845.html
| QUOTE |
| NATO jet crashes in AfghanistanLast Updated: Monday, July 20, 2009 | 5:28 AM ET The Associated Press A Tornado fighter jet crashed inside NATO's largest base in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the second major crash on the base in two days, officials said. The jet crashed inside Kandahar Airfield during takeoff at 7:20 a.m. Afghanistan time, said Capt. Ruben Hoornveld, a spokesman for the NATO-led force. The two-member crew ejected and were being treated at the base hospital. There was no indication that insurgent activity caused the crash, he said, but officials could not immediately say why the plane went down. The jet caught fire and emergency personnel responded. NATO didn't identify which nation the jet came from, but a U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul, Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, said the jet was a Tornado — an aircraft commonly flown by British forces. The crash happened one day after a Russian-owned civilian Mi-8 helicopter crashed at Kandahar Airfield, killing 16 people on board. Both Kandahar crashes follow a string of deadly aircraft downings elsewhere around Afghanistan in recent days. 3rd crash in 3 days Hoornveld said he did not know why two aircraft had crashed in Kandahar in two days. (...) |
MSantor - July 21, 2009 03:52 AM (GMT)
RIP Soldiers. It seems this has been a deadly month for both US forces and coalition forces as well. The Brits alone suffered 15 casualties this month, with eight during a single day, as mentioned in other threads.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090721/ap_on_.../as_afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090721/ap_on_.../as_afghanistan
| QUOTE |
| Afghan blast kills 4 GIs in deadliest month for US Robert H. Reid, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 42 mins ago KABUL – A roadside bomb killed four American troops in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, driving the July death toll for U.S. forces to the highest monthly level of the war. The latest deaths brought to at least 30 the number of American service members who have died in Afghanistan this month — two more than the figure for all of June 2008, which had been the deadliest month for the U.S. since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion drove the Taliban from power. July's death toll for the entire U.S.-led coalition, which includes American, British, Canadian and other forces, stands at 55 — well over the previous record of 46 deaths suffered in June and August of 2008. U.S. commanders had predicted a bloody summer after President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan in a bid to turn the tide against a resurgent Taliban and shift the focus on the global war against Islamic extremism from Iraq. NATO's outgoing Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Monday that terrorism would spread through the world if NATO forces fail in Afghanistan. (...) Roadside bombs now account for more than two-thirds of all casualties among the international force as the Taliban demonstrate greater skill in manufacturing and planting the explosives. Bombings rose by 25 percent in the first four months of 2009 over the same period last year, and the U.S. command expects them to increase 50 percent this year to 5,700 — up from 3,800 last year. The increased threat from roadside bombs and Afghanistan's formidable terrain of high mountains and deserts have forced the international military force to rely heavily on aircraft to transport personnel and supplies around the country. The increased tempo of the conflict has strained air assets and may have been behind a series of aircraft accidents in recent weeks. (...) |
MSantor - July 25, 2009 03:22 AM (GMT)
Another update:
| QUOTE |
| Agence France-Presse - 7/24/2009 8:15 PM GMT US soldiers, 12 militants killed in Afghanistan Fighting killed two US soldiers and 12 militants in Afghanistan, where violence is spreading to new flashpoints and foreign troop deaths have soared to record highs, officials said Friday. The NATO soldiers were killed as a result of an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said in a statement providing no further details. A US military spokesman confirmed the dead soldiers were American. Western military casualties have hit record levels in Afghanistan as foreign governments scramble extra troops to the war-torn nation, hoping to ease a worsening Taliban insurgency ahead of elections on August 20. There are about 90,000 foreign troops -- mainly US, British and Canadian -- deployed in Afghanistan on a mission to stabilise the country with the Taliban insurgency at its deadliest since the 2001 US-led invasion. Thousands more US Marines and British troops have been deployed in southern Afghanistan in recent weeks to help bolster security ahead of the polls. Violence is also surging elsewhere in the country, with 12 insurgents reported killed in the north and the southeast Ghazni province. "Last night in an operation conducted by US-led coalition forces in the Baidar area of Gelan district eight Taliban were killed, five of them foreigners," said Khial Baz Sherzai, Ghazni police chief. The US military said "several enemy combatants" were killed when Afghan and foreign forces raided a compound where they seized guns and grenades. "Ghazni province has seen increasing Taliban violence as militants seek to disrupt governance and security in the region," the military said. In northern Balkh province, four Taliban were killed in a clash with foreign forces, said Abdul Rauf Daj, a provincial intelligence chief. The independent www.icasualties.org website, which tracks military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, says 219 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year, not including the latest deaths. The fatalities Friday bring the foreign military death toll in July to 65, the deadliest month for international forces since the 2001 invasion. Rear Admiral Greg Smith, spokesman for the top commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, said the soaring military death toll was a consequence of having more troops on the ground. "We've said all along that we expected an increase in the number of incidents because of the increased activity of coalition forces in the south and in the east," he told AFP. He added that the US military had stopped releasing figures showing how many militants have been killed in fighting with US-led forces, saying such data "has little relevance to impacting the lives of Afghans." Smith sent an order last month to NATO and US forces blocking the military from releasing details on militant death tolls. "The goal of security operations in an insurgency is to separate the people from the insurgents. Without access to the people, the insurgents lose their main center of gravity," he said. Smith, who is revamping communications for the US military and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, stressed US-led military operations were not aimed at killing insurgents. The objective was to "clear areas of insurgency and give the people a chance to reconnect with official forms of governance and to rebuild their lives, socially and economically." |
MSantor - July 25, 2009 07:50 PM (GMT)
RIP to this soldier, even if his nationality has not yet been revealed.
| QUOTE |
| Agence France-Presse - 7/25/2009 7:35 AM GMT NATO soldier, several Afghan militants killed: US One NATO soldier and several insurgents have been killed in a firefight in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said Saturday, as Taliban-linked violence spirals weeks before elections. Troops with the coalition International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) came under fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades as they tried to search a house Friday in the east of the country, the military said. "It was during this exchange that one ISAF soldier was killed," the statement released early Saturday said, without revealing the nationality of the dead soldier or the exact location of the clash. "The ISAF soldiers returned fire and called in close air support to neutralise the enemy threat, dropping three bombs and killing several insurgents," it added. The statement did not say how many militants were killed, in line with a new US policy to improve relations with the local population by withholding the number of insurgent deaths. Western military casualties have hit record levels in Afghanistan as foreign governments scramble extra troops to the war-torn nation, hoping to counter an escalating Taliban insurgency ahead of elections on August 20. There are about 90,000 foreign troops -- mainly US, British and Canadian -- deployed in Afghanistan on a mission to stabilise the country with the Taliban insurgency at its deadliest since the 2001 US-led invasion. The independent www.icasualties.org website, which tracks military losses, says 221 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year, not including the latest death. The website reports 65 killed in July alone -- the deadliest month for international forces since the 2001 invasion. |
MSantor - July 25, 2009 10:29 PM (GMT)
Interesting article highlighting the relatively superior infantry tactics of Afghan fighters, vs those the Marines were up against in Anbar.
| QUOTE |
NAWA, Afghanistan — In three combat tours in Anbar Province, Marine Sgt. Jacob Tambunga fought the deadliest insurgents in Iraq. But he says he never encountered an enemy as tenacious as what he saw immediately after arriving at this outpost in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. In his first days here in late June, he fought through three ambushes, each lasting as long as the most sustained fight he saw in Anbar. Like other Anbar veterans here, Sergeant Tambunga was surprised to discover guerrillas who, if not as lethal, were bolder than those he fought in Iraq. “They are two totally different worlds,” said Sergeant Tambunga, a squad leader in Company C, First Battalion, Fifth Marines. “In Iraq, they’d hit you and run,” he said. “But these guys stick around and maneuver on you.” |
I also found this section quite troubling:
| QUOTE |
In contrast to Iraqi insurgents, the Taliban do not seem to have access to large artillery shells and other powerful military munitions that Anbar fighters used to kill hundreds of Marines and soldiers. The bombs found so far have been largely homemade with fertilizer, though they have still killed more than 20 British soldiers and United States Marines to the north and south of Nawa. “If they had better weapons, we’d be in real trouble,” said Lance Cpl. Vazgen Matevosyan. |
Let's all be grateful the Russians are no longer our enemies. Otherwise we could be in the same boat as they were - up against committed Afghan guerillas, armed with Stingers, C4 and other modern munitions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/world/as...es.html?_r=1&hp
MSantor - July 27, 2009 06:52 PM (GMT)
I wonder if any of the resident Kiwis on this forum would be willing to comment on this:
| QUOTE |
| US: Fight for us, you may need us The United States is putting pressure on New Zealand to contribute more to the war in Afghanistan, warning Wellington that it should act as an ally in case it ever needs US military support. President Barack Obama's new ambassador to Nato, Ivo Daalder, has told the Herald that New Zealand should be fighting the Taleban as a "partner and ally" in a Western effort. Prime Minister John Key has indicated the elite SAS combat troops will be sent back to the war and the United States already has a likely role ready for them. Dr Daalder said the US wanted more troops - in particular the elite SAS - more aid, more police and army trainers as well as civilians with expertise. All would help to bring an end to the war, he said. "Every penny, troop and trainer will hasten this." Mr. Key has said New Zealand's rationale for being in the war is to counter global terrorism. But Dr Daalder made it clear a major reason for a resumed troop commitment would be the maintenance of military relations with the US and the West. Source: http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article....0586805&ref=rss |
Fmr TOPP Awardee 82'PNP - July 28, 2009 09:52 AM (GMT)
New Zealand's contribution to the US effort in Afghanistan will be seen as important, regardless of whether more support is sent. New Zealand is under pressure from the American government to step up it's efforts in Afghanistan. It has been suggested that New Zealand SAS troops should fight alongside Afghan forces. Cabinet will make a decision based on political tremors on this issue in a couple of months time.
If New Zealand make any contribution at all and keep the provincial reconstruction there, at least until September next year, which is the timeline, that's symbolically important. There is unlikely to be any political fallout if New Zealand refuses the request.
New Zealand troops are currently in the Afghanistan province of Banyan as part of the NZ reconstruction Team. The 14th rotation arrived in Afghanistan in April for six month deployment. The govenment has already announced that NZ's involvement in the region will be extended until September 2010.
In my view, New Zealand should not bow to pressure from the US and I believe that NZ could refuse certain roles because they were too dangerous. New Zealand is not to answer to America. The government should make decisions in the best intererest of New Zealand. US Ambassador to the UN Dr. Daalder's comments that "Wellington should contribute to the war because "god forbid there be a threat directly to New Zealand" and it needed help form the US or other allies, is "a little gung ho" and should be taken in "a grain of salt", or in other terms Dr. Daalder's terminology of soliciting help is quite whimsical.
If New Zealand make any contribution at all and keep the provincial reconstruction there, at least until September next year, which is the timeline, that's symbolically important. There is unlikely to be any political fallout if New Zealand refuses the request.
New Zealand troops are currently in the Afghanistan province of Banyan as part of the NZ reconstruction Team. The 14th rotation arrived in Afghanistan in April for six month deployment. The govenment has already announced that NZ's involvement in the region will be extended until September 2010.
In my view, New Zealand should not bow to pressure from the US and I believe that NZ could refuse certain roles because they were too dangerous. New Zealand is not to answer to America. The government should make decisions in the best intererest of New Zealand. US Ambassador to the UN Dr. Daalder's comments that "Wellington should contribute to the war because "god forbid there be a threat directly to New Zealand" and it needed help form the US or other allies, is "a little gung ho" and should be taken in "a grain of salt", or in other terms Dr. Daalder's terminology of soliciting help is quite whimsical.
MSantor - July 31, 2009 09:44 PM (GMT)
RIP Soldier. This occurring at the end of the month does not make this loss any less than the others who gave their lives earlier this month.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090731/..._us_afghanistan
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090731/..._us_afghanistan
| QUOTE |
| U.S. soldier killed as deadliest Afghan month closes Fri Jul 31, 9:02 AM By Paul Tait KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. service member was killed as the deadliest month for foreign troops in the Afghanistan war drew to a close, the U.S. military said on Friday, with commanders vowing to continue the fight despite the toll. The death in southern Afghanistan brought to 40 the number of U.S. troops killed in July, by far the heaviest monthly toll in the 8-year-old war. The worst previous month for U.S. forces was in September 2008, when 26 were killed. The latest death occurred in a firefight with insurgents in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, the U.S. military said, without giving further details. At least 70 foreign troops have been killed in July. Britain has suffered its worst battlefield casualties since the 1980s Falklands War, with the 22 troops killed in the month taking its total losses in Afghanistan to 191, 12 more than were killed in the Iraq war. Casualties spiked after thousands of U.S. and British troops this month launched major operations in southern Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and the center of Afghanistan's opium production. (...) |
MSantor - August 3, 2009 04:50 PM (GMT)
Interborder comparisons between how Afghanistan and Pakistan handle their local tribal groups gives some food for thought:
| QUOTE |
The Afridi Rifles Pacify Afghanistan August 3, 2009 Article Link U.S. troops who have served in Iraq, and now find themselves in Afghanistan, are discovering some similarities. Mainly the corrupt and inept police found in both countries. But not only does Afghanistan lack an effective national police force, it has never had one before. Moreover, the tribes have evolved a crude justice system over the centuries, and where that system is in force (many areas of the country are just plain "lawless" except for tribal justice), there is hostility, often armed hostility, to outsiders (Afghan national police) trying to come in and displace tribal power. Recruiting police locally sometimes works, but you have to accept the fact that tribal leaders will have great influence over subsequent police actions. All the tribes want from the central government is autonomy, and a share of any money foreign governments are giving to "Afghanistan". This has always been a sore point with the tribes. In dealing with the foreigners, large bribes or gifts (it's often difficult to tell the difference) are often given to the leaders of the country, in return for some favor (like assisting in fighting international Islamic terrorism). The tribes, even when they have some of their own people in the national government (the current Afghan president comes from a family that has long produced tribal leaders), don't trust those guys in Kabul to share the foreign loot fairly. This is a reminder that the politics within tribes can get pretty nasty. That's why some tribes have pro and anti Taliban factions. The problem with the police in Iraq was that Saddam did not give the police much authority. They could handle traffic and any crimes not committed by government officials or Baath party members (these were handled by one of Saddam's secret police organizations.) Over time, it was possible to improve the quality of Iraqi police. More training worked because most Iraqis were literate, and most Iraqis were familiar with modern police procedures (either from kin in Europe or North America, or American TV shows). Not so in Afghanistan, where most adults are illiterate and many of those who have seen American TV consider the crime shows just more escapist fantasy (so do many Americans, but that's another story.) So what's to be done? The Americans would do well to look across the border at how the Pakistani government polices their Pushtun tribes. Not only do the Pakistanis have twice as many Pushtuns to cope with, but they have been keeping the (what passes for) peace in the tribal territories for over 60 years. They carried on many techniques developed by the British, who in turn studied the history of the region and, eventually, realized you had to be creative in policing the Pushtuns. What the Pakistanis use are a combination of paramilitary regiments (recruited locally, and usually named after the dominant tribe, as in the Afridi Rifles near the Khyber pass) and traditional tribal policing methods. The key is to respect the authority of the tribal leadership. While it's true that this leadership may often be corrupt, ineffective or split by violent feuds, it's important that the tribes don't automatically see the government as the enemy. The paramilitary forces help keep the peace between tribes, and go after outlaws (lots of outlaws in the tribal territories). More on link |
MSantor - August 13, 2009 12:22 AM (GMT)
The US Marine offensive which began earlier this summer continues:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_.../as_afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_.../as_afghanistan
| QUOTE |
| By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writer Alfred De Montesquiou, Associated Press Writer – 37 mins ago DAHANEH, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines battled Taliban fighters Wednesday for control of a strategic southern town in a new operation to cut militant supply lines and allow Afghan residents to vote in next week's presidential election. Insurgents appeared to dig in for a fight, firing volleys of rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and even missiles from the back of a truck at the Marines, who were surprised at the intense resistance. By sunset, Marines had made little progress into Dahaneh beyond the gains of the initial pre-dawn assault. Fighting accelerated after sundown, and officers predicted a couple of days of intense combat before the town could be secured. "Based on the violence with which they've been fighting back against us, I think it indicates the Taliban are trying to make a stand here," said Capt. Zachary Martin, commander of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines. The operation, Eastern Resolve 2, was launched early Wednesday with 400 Marines and 100 Afghan troops, who leapfrogged over Taliban lines in helicopters to attack militant positions in mud-brick compounds at the edge of town. It was the third major push by U.S. and British forces this summer into Taliban-controlled areas of Helmand province, center of Afghanistan's lucrative opium business and scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the Afghan war. British troops have been responsible for Helmand the last three years, but never had enough forces to take and hold Dahaneh. The Marines are part of the 21,000 additional forces President Barack Obama deployed to Afghanistan this year to stop the Taliban's violent momentum. By their operations, U.S. and British troops hope to break the Taliban grip on the province, sever smuggling routes from Pakistan and protect the civilian population from Taliban reprisals so Afghans can vote here during the Aug. 20 election. The Taliban have called for a boycott of the ballot and threatened to ruin the election. It was the first time U.S. or NATO troops had entered Dahaneh, a squalid town of about 2,000 people, in years. Marines say the town is key to controlling the Naw Zad valley — a major Taliban staging area and site of a large opium market. The goal is to cut off the Taliban from other communities in the valley, making civilians in the area more willing to cooperate with NATO forces. The Taliban levy taxes and maintain checkpoints in Dahaneh. The town serves as a main trading route through northern Helmand, which produces 60 percent of the world's opium. During the first day of fighting, Marines said they killed between seven and 10 militants and seized about 66 pounds of opium, which the Taliban use to finance their insurgency. The U.S. military said an American soldier was killed by a bomb Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, but the statement did not say whether the blast was part of the fighting around Dahaneh. A first assault wave in Humvees and MRAPs left a Marine base at 1 a.m. in the town of Naw Zad, about five miles north of Dahaneh. Three CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters then picked up a platoon of Marines and dropped them behind Taliban lines in Dahaneh. These troops blasted their way into a suspected militant compound, where they arrested five men and took over the compound as a base. Just before morning light, militants unleashed their weapons. Marines cried out "Incoming!" as the whistles of Taliban rockets approached. A heavy rocket targeted a Marine outpost but flew over the small base, while a mortar round landed just 20 yards from a Humvee on the town's outskirts. "Just a few meters farther and I'd be dead," said Cpl. Joshua Jackson, 23, of Copley, Ohio, after one round landed nearby. Short bursts of fire punctuated the desert air over the next eight hours, a response so fierce that troops suspected the Taliban knew they were coming. At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said the operation was "going as planned." "They are engaged in a fight. They are meeting some resistance," he said. He would not say how long the offensive will last. A heavy machine gun the Taliban were firing from one of the streets slowed the Marines' progress into the town. Militants also brought in a truck to fire heavy missiles. Marines said the Taliban's reputation for firing poorly aimed shots and fleeing had not proved true here. "This is a Taliban home down here, so for once they're not running," said Lance Cpl. Garett Davidson, 24, of West Des Moines, Iowa. Complicating the fight, insurgents were shooting from house rooftops and courtyards, potentially putting civilians in danger. But civilians — perhaps 100 — were seen running away in the early morning, leaving the Marines confident that those left in the town were mostly militants. Martin, the company commander, said the Marines would strictly limit the type of weapons they use and would stick to a "proportional response" when under fire to limit civilian casualties, an issue that the U.S. and NATO commander here, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has emphasized with troops. The Marines appeared to take great care to help villagers. About a dozen Marines and Afghan troops dashed 50 yards out of their compound to help people caught in crossfire. The Marines launched white phosphorus smoke grenades to obscure the rescue of the five Afghan children and five adults, including one man on crutches. The villagers were then hurried into the Marine outpost. After militants fired volleys of rockets from a mud-wall compound, the Marines called in a missile strike, and Martin said seven to 10 militants inside were killed. No civilians were inside, he said. "We were tracking these individuals, they were there ... and then boom, and they weren't there," Martin said. After the noon sun sent temperatures close to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, fighting subsided. It picked up again around 4 p.m., when a Marine unit launching one of NATO's first patrols in Dahaneh was ambushed within yards of the outpost. Insurgents appeared to try to encircle the Marine position. Sniper and RPG fire landed near the compound, but there were no U.S. or Afghan casualties. Cobra attack helicopters circled overhead, adjusting their targets in the mountains where some of the Taliban forces were hiding out. Militants typically avoid large confrontations with U.S. troops. Martin said the Taliban may have been tipped off about the operation, a suspicion shared by many of his troops. "I'd say we've gained a foothold for now, and it's a substantial one that we're not going to let go of," Martin said as RPG fire landed nearby. Other Marines units met heavy resistance as they fought to seize control of the mountains surrounding Dahaneh. A convoy of Marines in Humvees and MRAPS sat on the town's outskirts, where militants attacked them with mortar fire. The offensive follows Eastern Resolve 1, the Marines' initial push out of Naw Zad in early spring. This first move was of limited effect, because U.S. troops were too thinly spread to control areas they managed to claim from insurgents. |
MSantor - August 16, 2009 01:06 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Britain suffers 200th Afghanistan death By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 43 mins ago LONDON – A British soldier wounded in an explosion in Afghanistan died Saturday, the defense ministry said, bringing the country's military death toll there to 200. Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the grim milestone "deeply tragic news." It is sure to raise more questions about Britain's increasingly perilous mission in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defense said the soldier from 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh died Saturday at a military hospital in England. He had been wounded in a blast while on vehicle patrol Thursday in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Three other British troops were killed by roadside bombs in a separate incident in Afghanistan the same day. Britain has about 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, most based in Helmand, a center of Taliban insurgents. The British military suffered 22 fatalities in July, its bloodiest month since the invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Nine British troops have been killed so far this month. The rising toll — more than the 179 personnel who died in Iraq — has reignited a debate in Britain about its role in the war and the quality of its military equipment. The Afghan campaign has long been divisive, with polls showing Britons about evenly split between supporters and opponents of the mission. Graham Knight, whose son Ben was killed when a Royal Air Force Nimrod plane exploded over Afghanistan in 2006, said it was "time for an end to military action" in Afghanistan. "We are ill-equipped and ill-advised," he said. "We should be getting the non-militant Taliban around the table and begin talks so we can embark on a withdrawal." The prime minister said the mission to defeat the Taliban was essential to British security because "three-quarters of terrorist plots against Britain come from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan." "British troops are fighting bravely there to protect us," Brown said. "The best way to honor the memory of those who have died is to see that commitment through." Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth said it was a "grim day" but that Britain must stay focused on its mission in Afghanistan. "This is a difficult time but we must all take solace from the fact that, although sometimes slow, we have been making good progress in Afghanistan," Ainsworth said. "We must all stay focused on the mission, on why it matters and what is at stake." Afghans are due to vote Thursday in presidential elections, seen by the international community as a key marker of the country's progress towards becoming a stable democracy. Militants have staged a series of attacks in the run-up to the vote, including a suicide car bombing Saturday near NATO headquarters in Kabul that killed seven people and wounded nearly 100. |
MSantor - August 19, 2009 08:58 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| 6 US troops die in Afghanistan ahead of election By JASON STRAZIUSO and AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writers Jason Straziuso And Amir Shah, Associated Press Writers 1 hr 10 mins ago KABUL – The U.S. military said Wednesday six American troops were killed in Afghanistan, as militants killed six election workers amid growing fears on the eve of the presidential election that insurgents would mar the vote. Two troops were killed in gunfire in the south on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, while a third was killed in an unspecified hostile attack. The U.S. also said a roadside bomb Tuesday in the south killed two troops, while another died of noncombat-related injuries. No other details were released. The deaths bring to at least 32 the number of American troops killed in the country this month, a record pace. Forty-four U.S. troops died in Afghanistan last month, the deadliest month of the eight-year war. Attacks in the countryside killed six election workers, officials said Wednesday, one day before Afghanistan decides whether President Hamid Karzai deserves a second five-year term. In Kabul, three Taliban militants took over a bank, and gunfire and small explosions reverberated throughout the capital. Police stormed the bank and killed the three militants. (...) |