News from Afghanistan

I notice the articles you posted like to point out how "difficult" Afghanistan is by pointing out that 9 soldiers died in November. The "worst" since 2001....put that into perspective please...surely I don't have to spell that one out.

how long do you think it will be before people finally admit that we are not winning in afghanistan or beating the talibaan?
(btw, i have no idea what "winning" would consist of anyway)

format_quote Originally Posted by snakelegs

how long do you think it will be before people finally admit that we are not winning in afghanistan or beating the talibaan?
(btw, i have no idea what "winning" would consist of anyway)

How we "win" in Afghanistan involves how stable and effective the Afghan government will be. We can keep killing the Taliban when they pop their heads up, but the true victory will have to be achieved by the Afghans themselves.

It will always be.."Next spring will be bad"..year after year.

Aww..the "representative of Islam" has returned.....

Just a gentle reminder to one and all.

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Afghan, int'l troops enter Taliban town
By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer 36 minutes ago


KABUL, Afghanistan - Hundreds of Taliban fighters fled in trucks and motorbikes Monday as Afghan and international troops fought their way into the only important town controlled by the hard-line Islamic movement.


Afghan officers reported some militants, possibly al-Qaida, were still resisting in the center of Musa Qala, and said the attacking force controlled the southern town but was moving slowly toward the center because streets were boobytrapped with improvised bombs.

A Taliban spokesman confirmed the insurgents retreated from Musa Qala, which the militants had held since February, and Afghanistan's president said the successful attack was aided by some local Taliban leaders switching allegiance to his government.

Visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown predicted developments in Musa Qala would have positive long-term results, and the success boosted hopes the Afghan government can expand into a key opium producing area where it now wields little influence.

But Musa Qala has bounced back and forth between government and Taliban control despite the presence of British troops nearby, and it remains to be seen whether overstretched Afghan and NATO troops can hold the town.

Some 7,000 British soldiers have faced fierce battles in northern Helmand province this year, in Kajaki, Sangin, Gereshk and Musa Qala. It is the world's largest opium poppy growing region, and provides the Taliban with tens of millions of dollars.
President Hamid Karzai said the decision to enter Musa Qala came after local Taliban commanders agreed to side with the Afghan government because of brutality committed against townspeople by the Taliban, al-Qaida and foreign fighters.

At least 10 Taliban were reported killed Monday, in addition to more than a dozen killed since fighting intensified Friday.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said NATO and Afghan troops entered the outskirts of the main part of Musa Qala but would proceed cautiously into the town center because the militants had rigged improvised explosive devices.

An Afghan army commander, Brig. Gen. Gul Agha Naebi, said Musa Qala was surrounded and the attackers were 500 yards from the town center.

"The bombing continues. The area is big. (Tuesday) we will carefully clear the streets from the mines," he said. "Both sides are still exchanging fire. There is still resistance from the Taliban. I think these are foreign fighters, al-Qaida members that we are facing. They are trying to create ways for retreat."

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, confirmed the militants gave up Musa Qala, but said they left only to avoid civilian casualties.

A resident of Musa Qala, Haji Mohammad Rauf, said he saw Taliban fighters leave in trucks and motorbikes around midday. Two hours later, hundreds of Afghan soldiers streamed in and established security checkpoints, he said.

"I was standing on my roof and saw hundreds of Afghan soldiers drive into town," Rauf said. "All the shops are closed and families are staying inside their homes."

In Kabul, during a joint news conference with the British prime minister, Karzai said Taliban brutality in Musa Qala played a significant part in leading to the attack.

He told of a 15-year-old boy accused of spying by the Taliban who was hung from a ceiling and roasted to death by a gas-fed fire started beneath him. The next morning the militants told the boy's mother she could pick up her son, the president said.

"When she entered the room she found the charcoaled dead body of her son," Karzai said. "Some of the Afghan Taliban who also witnessed atrocities like that, they came and they met with me and they asked me to intervene and (said) that they will switch sides and that is what's happened."

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after British troops left under a controversial peace agreement that gave security responsibilities to town elders. The deal had been privately criticized by U.S. officials as a surrender to the Taliban.

NATO and Afghan forces will have to work hard to hold the town, which lies in a region that has seen fierce fighting this year — the deadliest year in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew a Taliban government in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden.

Lt. Col. Richard Eaton, a British spokesman, said NATO wouldn't take Musa Qala without a plan to hold it. He said a unit of predominantly Afghan soldiers would be stationed in town.

Brown, who visited British troops in Iraq before coming to Afghanistan, said he had "no doubt" the Musa Qala operation would be successful and that social and economic progress would follow.

"In Musa Qala the action has been taken, and I think we will see in the next few days in Musa Qala that the action will be effective, that it will work and it will bring long-term and lasting results," he said.

During a stop at Camp Bastion in Helmand province, Brown thanked about 150 British soldiers for their "patriotic service."

"It is one of the most difficult of tasks. It is the most testing of times and it is one of the most important of missions, because to win here and to defeat the Taliban and make sure we can give strength to the new democracy of Afghanistan is important to defeating terrorism all around the world," he said.

Brown's visit to Iraq on Sunday signaled the start of what Britain hopes will be the transition from a military mission there to one focused on aiding the economy and providing jobs. His speech was met with enthusiastic applause from British troops.

His speech in southern Afghanistan was more subdued, as was the resulting applause, perhaps reflecting the serious fight that British soldiers find themselves in.

"We have an operation ongoing in Musa Qala, we've just had people die, so it's a different tempo," said one officer, Lt. Andy McLachlan.


WOW so in a month they have managed to kill 9 US allied troops and between Friday and Monday there was over 20 of them dead, going by body count, I would say the Taliban are not winning. Also maybe take note of the highlighted statement regarding the troops there being "overstretched", what do you think will happen as Iraq continues to stabilize? Troops will be redeployed and help restore stability in Afghanistan, we will see how the Taliban fair then when there is actually someone around to drive them out of towns like this one... They will run away, just like they always do

i have no problem with the fact that this news makes you happy. you are as much entitled to your opinion as anybody else here.

Drat. Diddnt see this thread, just posted a similar one. Ill paste it here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...09/wafg109.xml

Two battalions of British and one of Afgan Loyalists have just decided enough is enough in Musa Qala.
So they have attacked the strongest point of Taliban oppression and now the Afgan flag flies above it. The entire force of taliban has been defeated and run off or died.

Some of their legacy of the 8 month reign their remains. Like the 15 year old boy cremated by gas cylinders for some crime "Against Islam". They closed the schools, whipped those women out of Burkhas and all their usual good stuff.

The only sad thing is that Gordon Brown visiting troops said reconstruction cant work until the Taliban "Are Gone".
They will not go. Their will always be some Jihadistic reinforcement coming to help in the misery of the Ummah there.
May Allah, (and the British and Afgan troops) protect the innocent there.