Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan: Coalition forces have officially announced Operation Mountain Thrust, a concerted effort to dislodge the Taliban from eastern and southeastern Afghanistan. This operation has been ongoing for some time, and includes the offensive operations in Kunar, Uruzgan, Kandahar, Helmand and Zabul provinces. Colonel Chris Vernon, the Chief of Staff of Multinational Forces Brigade – Regional Command South, has commented on the operation in a press conference just minutes ago here at Kandahar Airfield.
Download the audio here. The file is in MP3 format, approximately 12 Megabytes and about 10 minutes long.
Of note: Col Vernon states there are pockets of Taliban influence and safe havens in southeastern Afghanistan. Coalition forces are working to root them out of the region and establish a permanent presence – shades of the Anbar Campaign in Iraq (Flash Presentation), and a standard counterinsurgency technique. I will post on operations in Kandahar later today, which are but part of Mountain Thrust. I asked the question about Pakistan’s involvement in the Taliban insurgency, but Colonel Vernon would not comment on this subject.
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Press Conference with Colonel Chris Vernon on Mountain Thrust
Courtesy of the Counterterrorism Blog:
By Bill Roggio
Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan: Coalition forces have officially announced Operation Mountain Thrust, a concerted effort to dislodge the Taliban from eastern and southeastern Afghanistan. This op…