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Map of Afghanistan showing Taliban control. Kunduz and Baghlan provinces are directly north of Kabul; Farah is directly south of Herat. Data from Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry; map from Reuters. |
Afghan and Coalition troops battled the Taliban in western and northern Afghanistan on Saturday, resulting in more than 60 Taliban fighters and 14 Afghan soldiers and policemen killed.
In the West, Afghan and US troops fought a pitched battle in the Bala Buluk district in Farah province after the Taliban attacked a United Nations humanitarian convoy.
More than 50 Taliban fighters and seven Afghan soldiers were killed during the fighting, Afghan military spokesman Abdul Basir Ghori told Xinhua. He also said two US soldiers were killed during the fighting. This was later confirmed by the US military.
The Bala Buluk district was the scene of a clash in June that resulted in the death of 16 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. During the June battle, US and Afghan troops killed the Taliban’s deputy shadow governor for the province and an Arab al Qaeda trainer fighter who was described as a suicide attack mastermind and an expert on building improvised explosive devices.
In the northern province of Kunduz, a US airstrike killed 10 Taliban fighters, and the Taliban killed seven policemen during an attack on a police station.
An Afghan official said the airstrike occurred in the early morning in the village of Wazir near Kunduz city. The International Security Assistance Force did not confirm the strike, but did say its forces accompanied Afghan troops on a raid on a compound near the village of Torbah Kash, northeast of Kunduz City.
The joint force sought “facilitators and commanders responsible for attacks on Afghan citizens and for aiding the flow of money, foreign fighters and suicide bombers into the region,” according to a US military press release. An unspecified number of Taliban fighters were killed and captured.
The Taliban killed seven policemen during an attack on a checkpoint in the Imam Sahib district late Friday night. Two policemen have gone missing and are suspected of having links to the Taliban.
The situation in Kunduz province has rapidly deteriorated over the past two years. Attacks in Kunduz have spiked over the past two months as the Taliban has sought to disrupt NATO’s new supply line from Tajikistan to the north.
Of the seven districts in Kunduz province, only two are considered under government control; the rest of the districts – Chahara Dara, Dashti Archi, Ali Abab, Khan Abad, and Iman Sahib – are considered contested or under Taliban control, according to a map produced by Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry. Two districts in neighboring Baghlan province – Baghlan-i-Jadid and Burka – are under the control of the Taliban [see LWJ report, Afghan forces and Taliban clash in Kunduz, and Threat Matrix report, Afghanistan’s wild-wild North].
Fighting in Kunduz has intensified over the past month despite a series of operations launched in the spring and summer to drive out the Taliban.
The Taliban have conducted assaults against police checkpoints, killed senior political and military leaders, and kidnapped civilians sending their daughters to school.
Some of the largest battles since the beginning of September have taken place in Kunduz. On Sept. 3, Afghan security forces killed 15 Taliban fighters and claimed the Taliban’s shadow governor was also killed.
On Sept. 4, a NATO airstrike in the Ali Abad district killed scores of Taliban fighters and civilians after the Taliban hijacked two oil tankers. After stalling in a riverbed, the tankers were hit while surrounded by scores of Taliban fighters and also civilians who had flocked there to offload fuel.
On Sept. 5, the Taliban kidnapped a Western reporter and an Afghan reporter in Kunduz. On Sept. 9, British commandos conducted a raid to rescue the two reporters. The Afghan reporter, two civilians, a commando, and an unspecified number of Taliban fighters were killed during the rescue.
9 Comments
Bill – the map you have posted with this report doesnt seem to be fully correct seen as though some of your previous posts have quotes from afghan officials who state that certain towns/villages with-in kunduz are under taliban control, and you haven’t deemed to them to be at high risk/under enemy control?
ive just realised that the map was formulated by afghanistans interior ministry and not yourself, but then again, i dont think you should be supporting such data if its not showing the full and truthful picture
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria said that we should be making deals (paying off) individual tribal leaders like we did in Iraq. He said that creating a large Afghan national army is the wrong strategy. He said that would cost hundreds of billions. And when the Soviets tried this they deserted en mass. I think we now know we are going to have a weak central government. Many of the so-called Taliban are actually disgruntled tribal groups that are sick of Karzai. Now most of them think we are going to leave if they just fight a little harder. I haven’t yet heard anything defeatest coming from the president. But does he have the stomach for a drawn out fight?
>In the northern province of Kunduz, a US airstrike killed 10 Taliban fighters, and the Taliban killed seven
>policemen during an attack on a police station.
Notice: This airstrike happened just days after NYT journalist succeed to escape from Taliban after being kidnapped. The journalist mentioned he was likely captured somewhere in Kunduz. This may have hint NATO to find out where the Taliban were operating in the area. Kunduz is an area of high Pashtun ethnic concentration. Taliban are also strongly bonded with the Pashtun tribes. It is no surprise even the local Pashtun residents of Kunduz were providing support for Taliban. I believe it is time to teach the Pashtun Afghanis a lesson.
Doesn’t matter if he does or not, there is a point where there would simply be too little treasure and/or popular will to continue the fight.
Frankly, they should have restored Zahir Shah to the throne and had Karzai as PM. That way, there would be a steady head of state (Zahir dies, title goes to son), while the government can change depending on the whim of the Afghan Parliament.
Alas, we force-fed them the presidential republic model, a model similar to the Soviet set up in structure, and we became surprised when the people didn’t trust us.
Militarily speaking, we’re fine, but without the political and socio-economic game plan to back up those victories, they will all be hollow. If that means we have to be aparty to setting up something other than a democracy, so be it. Pragmatism comes before Idealism in war.
That said, blatantly setting up a brutal dictatorship a la South Vietnam isn’t something to consider either, since that would just worsen the effect with the people.
Frankly, I think the only way to stabilize Afghanistan would be to remove the Pakistani factor. How to go about it without causing a huge region war is anyones guess.
I agree we should have allowed Zahir Shah to resume the Throne, it is truly a tribal type of monarchy, somewhat level in that the peoples of this country have small regional ethnic “clusters” of agreement. We’ve had Afghanistan friends in the US for 21 years, and learned a lot from them (they fled in 1979). I believe that it is very clear that we are either ALL IN or ALL OUT, we cannot leave our men with ammo rationing, lubricant running out on machine guns, men surrounded by Taliban demanding they surrender waiting 80 minutes for evacuation and air cover. Our Soldiers didn’t count on our government HESITATING on the battle field. This war, Bill, is a mess, long or short, it has no end the way it is going right now. History teaches us, there is no winning there is only keeping our men and women safe, and then finding the formula for exit without completely breaking it.
He said that would cost hundreds of billions. And when the Soviets tried this they deserted en mass. I think we now know we are going to have a weak central government. Many of the so-called Taliban are actually disgruntled tribal groups that are sick of Karzai.
Spooky
“Frankly, I think the only way to stabilize Afghanistan would be to remove the Pakistani factor. How to go about it without causing a huge region war is anyones guess.”
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Agree with you totally.
And Pakistan itself is about as stable as a table with anywhere between two and two-and-a-half legs. The war is a huge war as of now too, covering a large enough region. The region of the war (Afpak) doesn’t really change necessarily (unless india decides to join in, as musharraf says he feared in 2001). Point is Pak is supposed to be covering its side, but it is more of a lie than an ally. The dynamics and costs will obviously change but the end game may simplify. There are obviously some clues in 1971 and since one doesn’t fight wars as one did back then, and the enemy is a different animal, there may not be 90,000 pows in 14 days, but i doubt very much if it will turn out to be a 14-yr war, of which we’re now coming into yr 9.
Frankly one can’t really see the returns on socio-economic-political investments in the present scenario.
RIP Sgt. Tyler Juden