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US Sends 100 Troops to Key Afghan City Under Taliban Siege
[MILITARY] The U.S. has sent 100 troops to the defense of Lashkar Gah, the capital of embattled Helmand...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province that is in danger of falling to the Taliban, the Pentagon and U.S. officials in Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the Worldand didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... said Monday. The U.S. troops are in a training and advisory role to the Afghan National Defense Security Forces and will provide a "new presence to assist the police zone" in Lashkar Gah, said Army Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... , chief front man for U.S. commander Army Gen. John Nicholson, in a statement. In a briefing to the Pentagon late last month, Nicholson said the Afghan Security Forces' 215th Corps had made progress in Helmand since cashiering corrupt leaders, but Cleveland made no attempt to downplay the seriousness of the situation in the province or the threat to Lashkar Gah. "This is a big effort by the Taliban. This is probably the most serious push we've seen of the season," Cleveland said. He described the troop deployment as a "temporary effort" to advise the Afghan police, but he declined to put a timeline on how long they would stay. The U.S. troops would be limited to an advisory role, although they would have the right to self defense. "They're not about to go out and conduct operations or something like that," Cleveland said. Earlier this month, the Afghan forces sent reinforcements to Helmand but failed to hold off Taliban offensives that have cut off main roads to Lashkar Gah and gradually crept closer to the city. Posted by: Fred 2016-08-23 |
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