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Click to view map of attacks in Afghanistan by province, 2007 versus 2008. The numbers are thru August 2008. |
US, British, and Afghan forces defeated two Taliban attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan on Sunday. Seventy Taliban were killed during the two engagements. Five were killed as they attempted to attack from inside Pakistan.
In eastern Afghanistan, US forces launched two separate artillery strikes into Pakistan after Taliban mortar teams attempted to hit a US outpost inside Afghanistan. The outpost is located in the border district of Barmal in Paktika province, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told The Long War Journal. The strikes were launched across the border into North Waziristan.
ISAF said the strikes were coordinated with the Pakistani military. US forces launched the first artillery strike after three Taliban were seen setting up a mortar tube. Pakistani forces confirmed two Taliban were killed. An hour later, a Taliban mortar team was seen setting up to hit a Pakistan Border Point. US forces launched a second volley “in defense of the Pakistani military.” Three Taliban were confirmed killed by Pakistani forces.
The artillery strikes occurred the same day as a US Predator strike was launched against a Taliban and al Qaeda safe house outside of Miramshah in North Waziristan. Four Taliban were reported killed.
The Haqqani family and Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadar run a parallel administration in North Waziristan, and have launched multiple cross-border strikes in Paktia, Paktika, and Khost provinces this year. Taliban and allied al Qaeda forces have attempted to over US and Afghan outposts and district centers in eastern Afghanistan this year.
In southern Afghanistan, US and Afghan forces killed more than 65 Taliban fighters after they attempted to attack an Afghan National Security Forces outpost in Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. The Taliban were seen gathering outside the town and were preparing a mortar attack when British and Afghan forces launched a counterattack. An airstrike resulted in most of the casualties, ISAF said in a press release. Mullah Qudratullah, the commander of the Taliban force, was killed in the attack, the provincial governor’s spokesman told Reuters.
The attack in Helmand comes as the British are pushing for peace talks with the Taliban and news has broken that a senior Pakistani military officer was killed during a raid in Helmand province more than a year ago. British intelligence believes the Taliban have split from al Qaeda, and the time is right to cut a deal. Talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government were pushed by the British. But the so-called Taliban representatives have no standing with the group. Several members have been expelled from the organization.
US intelligence told The Long War Journal that there is no evidence of a Taliban-al Qaeda split, and in fact believes that the Taliban and Mullah Omar’s ties to al Qaeda are stronger than ever. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the US would be willing to negotiate with the Taliban, but only with “reconcilable” elements – those without links to al Qaeda. Mullah Omar and other senior Taliban leaders are not considered among the reconcilable elements of the Taliban.
Afghan officials accuse the Brits of covering up a report of the death of a Pakistani military officer who was advising Taliban forces in the Sangin district in Helmand province. “When the British soldiers entered the compound they discovered a Pakistani military ID on the body,” The London Times reported. The Brits covered up the incident “because they care more about their relations with Islamabad than Kabul,” an Afghan official told the paper.
At the time, the British were in the process of secret negotiations with the Taliban and had set up “training camps” for Taliban fighters. British diplomats claimed “the camp was just a place for them to be reintegrated, learn about hygiene and things.” The cover-up and subsequent secret negotiations infuriated the Afghan government, and two British diplomats were later expelled after they were found to be conducting secret negotiations with the Taliban.
14 Comments
Cooperation between US and Pak military referenced here is encouraging. However, the comments of Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Nash, quoted in the Times Online link, are very troubling. Hopefully, Pak-Taliban cooperation is a thing of the past.
Two things that I’d like to see more of:
1) ANA getting into the action in some of the hot zones
2) A massive US-led economic development program. I’ve been reading some articles in Bloomberg, and it looks like some Iranian businesses are stepping in to invest in Afghanistan. Needless to say, I don’t trust Iran.
Sometimes you have to wonder whose side the British are on. On the one hand, their soldiers have reportedly performed well in battle. On the other hand, the diplomatic corps of Britain are constantly doing some of the stupidest things ever, always trying to cut some kind of deal with the enemy before the enemy is fully defeated, as if they want to keep them going in some kind of giant international chess game.
They did the same thing in Basra, but apparently they didn’t learn a thing from the complete embarrassment of their army that was suffered after the IA went into Basra and made them look like fools for their deal-making with Sadr.
Not only are the Coalition Forces targeting the Taliban in Pakistan today, so is the Pakistani Army.
Reuters: Pakistan air strike kills 27 militants
More bad news for the Taliban in Afghanistan today.
ISAF: ANSF, ISAF forces successfully disrupt insurgent leadership, supply lines in Panjwayi
Some details of what was found in the
latest "cache find" near Nakhonay, courtesy of
Stars &
Stripes:
"…. The dog hit upon a land mine and two containers of homemade
explosives. Soldiers also uncovered the wheel carriage for an anti-tank gun and
several canisters for its heavy rounds.
The discoveries grew. Within hours, the troops had found an 82 mm recoilless
rifle, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a PKM machine gun, two AK-47 rifles
and several anti-personnel mines. They also uncovered a number of grain sacks
stashed among the grape vines that were stuffed with hundreds of individual
rounds of munitions, including RPGs, mortar bombs, artillery rounds and several
calibers of small arms ammunition.
The soldiers also discovered bomb-making materials, handheld radios, winter
clothing and more than a dozen boxes of medical supplies that included IV bags,
antiseptics, pain medicine and bandages. Several boxes bore the label of the
International Red Cross Logistics Center in Peshawar, Pakistan. Others indicated
that the contents had originated in Europe, Canada and the United States…."
More action by the Pakistani Army against the Taliban today.
Daily Times: 12 bombers among 27 slain in Orakzai
A dead hirabi is a good hirabi. Sounds like the Pak’s are getting in on the action a little more. Wonder if the new head of the ISI has anything to do with it. GOOD WORK TROOPS KEEP KILLING HIRABI”S!!!
I read somewhere the Pakistani officer found dead with identification after the SAS raid on taliban fighters in Helmand province was an ISI Colonel, is this true?
The MSM keeps repeating ‘we’re losing in Afghanistan’, we’re losing in Afghanistan’. Yet when you read the reporting from the area each day it doesn’t add up.
Reuters: Afghan violence kills 14 militants, 8 civilians
Reuters: Pakistan kills 25 more militants in airstrike
This is encouraging news; maybe it is the new P- administration and the new head of ISI. Maybe NATO will finally begin to get engaged in this fight. They seem to have mostly tried to avoid combat and have 0 KIA numbers. Keep it up.
The US has led a massive rehabilitation effort in this and all other areas of Afghanistan.
Ring Road System,
Kajakai Dam Hydro-Electric Project,
Provincial Roads Network,
Over 700 Schools & Clinics,
Multiple Bridges and Infrastructure Projects –
All paid for and managed by USAID.
The biggest problem – at least while I was there from 05-07 was Brigidier Dickey Davis of the UK – in bed with Governor Daud (later sacked!) of Helmand Province and unwilling to admit what a rediculous strategy his Government was attempting to foist on the region.
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 10/14/2008 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.
The story about the P-stani officer is not the first. There have been a half dozen instances of rogue elements of the P-stani army, and ISI backing the militants. This is not real neighborly of the P-stani’s, who I see as 2 faced dogs, taking our cash and then tipping off our enemies. Iam surprised there is not more written about this. The UK’s TimesOnline has an article about it, but it seems like Coalition forces want it covered up. How long is this game gonna go on? We have to wind it down in Iraq, send the Brigades needed, but a decision must be made about the cancer in the tribal areas. It may be time to call P-stans hand, see if they will do something. Zadari may mean well, but the power is the Pak Army. Will they co-operate?