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Taliban forces consolidate gains around Kunduz
[WASHINGTONPOST] Taliban Death Eaters intensified a third day of attacks Monday near the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, cutting off main roads to adjacent provinces and reportedly blowing up a bridge that links Afghanistan to neighboring Tajikistan. The sustained assault deepened fears that Kunduz could fall again into bully boy hands, as it did for two weeks in September and October in one of the worst setbacks for government forces in the 15-year war.Senior Afghan military officials, as well as the civilian defense minister, have rushed to Kunduz to take charge of the fighting. Government forces have waged seesaw battles with Death Eaters since Saturday, and the Taliban has gained control of two s near the historic provincial capital as well as another area in adjacent Takhar province. The latest fighting comes days after a major Taliban push into Baghlan province just south of Kunduz and several weeks after Taliban forces began closing in on Lashkar Gah in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province. Lashkar Gah is another strategic city the Death Eaters have long sought to seize, forcing both Afghan and U.S. reinforcements to rush to the region. Speaking to news hounds in Kunduz on Monday, the deputy army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Murad Ali Murad, vowed not to allow the Taliban to retake Kunduz. 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.... , the senior U.S. military front man, 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 ... , told journalists Monday that U.S. officials are "very confident that Kunduz will not fall. We will be there to assist." Cleveland said that the Taliban Death Eaters "are still clearly a threat" but that they have "still not been able to achieve their main strategic goal, to seize a major population center." He would not specify what role U.S. forces are playing in Kunduz, but he said A-29 light-attack aircraft have been deployed there, with U.S.-trained Afghan pilots. Posted by: Fred 2016-08-23 |
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