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03-22-2010, 10:36 PM
U.S. forces at Taliban’s heels
By Alan Gomez - USA Today
Posted : Monday Mar 22, 2010 12:28:42 EDT
SARKARI BAGH, Afghanistan — As U.S. troops patrolled the eastern edge of the Arghandab River valley, slowly treading through knee-high brush and ducking through flourishing orchards, they heard an increasingly familiar crackle on the radio.
“They see us,” said an Afghan interpreter working with the Americans, referring to Taliban operatives on the other side of the river. “They are calling for help.”
Capt. Claude Lambert’s Delta company tried to figure out what was happening. A few hours later, a U.S. ammunition depot across the river was attacked. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded, injuring an Afghan army soldier guarding the depot.
“We were definitely being watched,” Lambert said.
Lambert and thousands of soldiers, Marines and Afghan army members here have been solidifying positions around southern Kandahar province in anticipation of the next phase in the war against the Taliban.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top military commander in Afghanistan, is moving ahead with a counterinsurgency strategy that aims to take away the strongholds of the Taliban so the militants have nowhere to hide and plot, and no population centers to terrorize into giving them support.
The strategy was carried out most recently in an offensive against Marjah, a city that coalition forces largely cleared of the Taliban and are still working to keep secure.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and marks the next phase of the offensive. For months, coalition forces have been ringing the outskirts of Kandahar city to halt the Taliban from infiltrating the area. Troop numbers have been bolstered in recent weeks by 30,000 additional U.S. service members that President Obama ordered sent here to reverse the Taliban’s gains.
The Arghandab district is one of the most important points in securing that perimeter.
In months past, coalition forces have been struck here routinely by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, outside the city of Kandahar, Lt. Sam Casella said.
U.S. and Afghan troops have been successful in finding and seizing thousands of pounds of explosives in the areas that are used for the IEDs, he said. So the Taliban is turning to other means to attack the Americans.
Over the weekend, suicide bombers struck several spots in Afghanistan, killing 12 Afghans. Last week, a suicide bomber wounded two U.S. troops in the area.
“Before, it was IED, IED, IED,” Casella said. “It’s different (now).”
Because the Taliban generally does not have encrypted radio channels, interpreters working for the Americans are sometimes able to listen in as Taliban fighters track the Americans traveling through the area.
Lambert said the coalition’s surveillance indicates that the Taliban is starting to increase its presence in the Arghandab district. The militants’ tactics are changing as well, he says.
Taliban fighters in Marjah, which is in the province adjacent to Kandahar, have scattered in the face of the massive allied assault but are fighting back with ambushes and hidden bombs, the U.S. military says. Residents have said the Taliban remains strong throughout the province despite the coalition’s takeover.
As the two sides prepare for a fight, there is talk of trying to reach a peace pact with the Taliban.
Afghanistan’s vice president, who has said he opposes making peace with Taliban leaders, expressed hope Sunday that an upcoming Afghan conference will lay the foundation for peace.
During celebrations in Mazar-e-Sharif marking the Afghan new year, Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who fought the Soviets and commanded forces that overthrew the Taliban in 2001, said a “peace jirga,” planned for late April or early May, would try to chart a way to reconcile with government opponents.
A jirga is an Afghan institution in which community leaders meet to take decisions by consensus.
“The government will try to find a peaceful life for those Afghans who are unhappy,” Fahim said, without mentioning the Taliban by name. “God willing, by the help of the people, we will have a successful, historic jirga. ... My dear countrymen, my hope is that this year will be the year of peaceful stability.”
By Alan Gomez - USA Today
Posted : Monday Mar 22, 2010 12:28:42 EDT
SARKARI BAGH, Afghanistan — As U.S. troops patrolled the eastern edge of the Arghandab River valley, slowly treading through knee-high brush and ducking through flourishing orchards, they heard an increasingly familiar crackle on the radio.
“They see us,” said an Afghan interpreter working with the Americans, referring to Taliban operatives on the other side of the river. “They are calling for help.”
Capt. Claude Lambert’s Delta company tried to figure out what was happening. A few hours later, a U.S. ammunition depot across the river was attacked. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded, injuring an Afghan army soldier guarding the depot.
“We were definitely being watched,” Lambert said.
Lambert and thousands of soldiers, Marines and Afghan army members here have been solidifying positions around southern Kandahar province in anticipation of the next phase in the war against the Taliban.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top military commander in Afghanistan, is moving ahead with a counterinsurgency strategy that aims to take away the strongholds of the Taliban so the militants have nowhere to hide and plot, and no population centers to terrorize into giving them support.
The strategy was carried out most recently in an offensive against Marjah, a city that coalition forces largely cleared of the Taliban and are still working to keep secure.
Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and marks the next phase of the offensive. For months, coalition forces have been ringing the outskirts of Kandahar city to halt the Taliban from infiltrating the area. Troop numbers have been bolstered in recent weeks by 30,000 additional U.S. service members that President Obama ordered sent here to reverse the Taliban’s gains.
The Arghandab district is one of the most important points in securing that perimeter.
In months past, coalition forces have been struck here routinely by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, outside the city of Kandahar, Lt. Sam Casella said.
U.S. and Afghan troops have been successful in finding and seizing thousands of pounds of explosives in the areas that are used for the IEDs, he said. So the Taliban is turning to other means to attack the Americans.
Over the weekend, suicide bombers struck several spots in Afghanistan, killing 12 Afghans. Last week, a suicide bomber wounded two U.S. troops in the area.
“Before, it was IED, IED, IED,” Casella said. “It’s different (now).”
Because the Taliban generally does not have encrypted radio channels, interpreters working for the Americans are sometimes able to listen in as Taliban fighters track the Americans traveling through the area.
Lambert said the coalition’s surveillance indicates that the Taliban is starting to increase its presence in the Arghandab district. The militants’ tactics are changing as well, he says.
Taliban fighters in Marjah, which is in the province adjacent to Kandahar, have scattered in the face of the massive allied assault but are fighting back with ambushes and hidden bombs, the U.S. military says. Residents have said the Taliban remains strong throughout the province despite the coalition’s takeover.
As the two sides prepare for a fight, there is talk of trying to reach a peace pact with the Taliban.
Afghanistan’s vice president, who has said he opposes making peace with Taliban leaders, expressed hope Sunday that an upcoming Afghan conference will lay the foundation for peace.
During celebrations in Mazar-e-Sharif marking the Afghan new year, Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who fought the Soviets and commanded forces that overthrew the Taliban in 2001, said a “peace jirga,” planned for late April or early May, would try to chart a way to reconcile with government opponents.
A jirga is an Afghan institution in which community leaders meet to take decisions by consensus.
“The government will try to find a peaceful life for those Afghans who are unhappy,” Fahim said, without mentioning the Taliban by name. “God willing, by the help of the people, we will have a successful, historic jirga. ... My dear countrymen, my hope is that this year will be the year of peaceful stability.”