The outgoing commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan says the focus of the war will shift in coming months from Taliban strongholds in the south to the eastern border with Pakistan where insurgents closest to al-Qaeda and other militants hold sway.
With a new job pending as the CIA director, General David Petraeus said on Monday that by the northern autumn, more special forces, intelligence, surveillance, air power will be concentrated in areas along Afghanistan's rugged eastern border with Pakistan.
There will be substantially more Afghan boots on the ground in the east and perhaps a small number of extra coalition forces too. "There could be some small (coalition) forces that will move, but this is about shifting helicopters - lift and attack. It's about shifting close-air support. It's about shifting, above all, intelligence, surveillance and recognisance assets," he said.
The US-led coalition has concentrated most of its troops and attention in Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan. That's where the majority of the more than 30,000 US reinforcements were deployed last year.
#1
"There could be some small (coalition) forces that will move, but this is about shifting helicopters - lift and attack. It's about shifting close-air support. It's about shifting, above all, intelligence, surveillance and recognisance assets," he said.
"Paging SEAL Team 6. You're wanted in the 'office'."
Posted by: BA ||
07/05/2011 11:37 Comments ||
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#2
I'm all in favor of doing this as a scheme involving "human UAVs". That is, to send special teams in "kill everyone in the building", with a lot broader net for troublemakers.
This includes radical madrassas, city, not just rural settings, and even a Phoenix program to take out traitors in the ISI and military.
If it's going to be a major hit, prearrange it so it looks like a disaster. A gas main explosion, that sort of thing.
#3
If it's going to be a major hit, prearrange it so it looks like a disaster. A gas main explosion, that sort of thing.
Don't forget to leave some 'Western P*rn®' addressed to some ISI official strewn about haphazardly. That'll keep their beards in a tizzy.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/05/2011 13:15 Comments ||
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#4
Iff World Mil History is any measure, hopefully China + the Central Asian -Stans have upped their border security forces because the MilTerrs will be skeddadling towards their direction = general vicinity.
A British soldier who went missing from his base in southern Afghanistan has been found dead with gunshot wounds.
The serviceman's body was discovered by an Isaf patrol after a massive manhunt was launched. He was reportedly last seen at a military checkpoint in the early hours of the morning, and the Taliban had claimed responsibility for killing him.
Nato spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Tim Purbrick said: "He had suffered gunshot wounds. "His exact cause of death is still to be established and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and death are currently under investigation.
"It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends."
It has been confirmed that the soldier was based in Nahr-e Saraj district and serving with The Highlanders, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland. Sky News defence correspondent Niall Paterson said the area had been the scene of struggles between Isaf and the Taliban for control. "The Taliban had only recently been pushed back from near the checkpoint he was stationed at.
"Information coming from Afghanistan indicated he left the base to go for a swim, in a village where Isaf forces have been heavily engaged in counter-insurgency operations," Paterson said.
Does that make sense?
Coalition troops had been stood down from regular operations to help look for him from the ground and air, with Nato command earlier listing him as "duty status whereabouts unknown".
British forces' emergency actions also affected Prime Minister David Cameron, who was on a secret trip to visit troops in Helmand province. Mr Cameron had been scheduled to travel to nearby Lashkar Gah but the search for the missing soldier meant plans had to be changed. The PM said: "The reason for me not going to Lashkar Gah was not about my security. It was literally, use everything you have got to try and deal with this.
"That was the right thing to do."
Mr Cameron said he was "deeply saddened" by the death of the soldier - the British armed forces' 375th fatality during the decade-long campaign in Afghanistan.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox told the House of Commons the unnamed soldier went missing "in the early hours of this morning" and that his next-of-kin had been informed. Jerome Starkey, a journalist in Kabul with The Times, told Sky News: "An eyewitness said he was last seen walking past an Afghan checkpoint.
"And it was understood the British soldier, along with two colleagues, had gone swimming in a nearby canal."
Mr Starkey also told Sky: "We understand the soldier was found around 7pm local time after being missing for about 17 hours."
The journalist added: "The suggestion that I've had... is that the soldier was last seen walking south from a checkpoint where he was based.
"He did not appear, or at least there are no reports, that he was under any duress."
Paterson said extensive MoD inquiries are now under way. "The investigation will continue for a significant amount of time and there are many questions that need to be answered."
The serviceman's disappearance came shortly after the Taliban sent a statement by text message claiming they had captured a soldier.
[Tolo News] Insurgents were wiped out of Zherai district in southern Kandahar province in an ongoing joint clean-up operation, a senior military commander said on Monday.
Commander of Maiwand 404 zone in Kandahar, Salem Ehsas, said eight Taliban fighters have been killed and 22 others jugged in a joint operation launched last week in Zherai district, where top Taliban leaders were believed to live.
No civilian structure has been harmed in the operation, officials said.
Zherai district has been one of the dangerous places in southern Afghanistan with huge risks of bully boy activities and has long been the scene of some of the deadliest battles between Afghan cops and the Taliban.
The Afghan commander said the Taliban have lost momentum to engage in a face-to-face fight with Afghan forces.
Roadside mines, the deadliest tool of the Taliban that have claimed military and civilian lives, have been described the biggest threats ahead of forces and locals in Zherai district.
"Zherai district was under enemy threat, because the Taliban had their court in the district," the commander said. "The district was also home to defence and justice ministers of the Taliban. In cooperation with residents, we launched a joint operation with our foreign partners that has been successful."
Zherai located along the Pak mostly non-existent border was a hub for the Taliban Orcs and similar vermin infiltrating into Afghan soil from Pakistain's tribal belts.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Congratulations, and good luck keeping the vermin out.
[Tolo News] Around three hundreds forces of Evil crossed into Pakistain from Afghanistan and attacked Pak border forces, officials have said.
Pak intelligence officials said on Monday that one Pak soldier was killed and another maimed in the attack that lasted for several hours in the border region of Bajaur.
At least four assailants were reportedly killed in the fight, officials said.
Pakistain claims that it has lost 56 soldiers in a spate of cross-border attacks carried out by forces of Evil crossing over from Afghanistan.
But a Pak military front man in Rawalpindi has said no forces of Evil have crossed the border, but instead fired rockets into Pakistain, killing one Pak soldier.
The Afghan government has recently accused Pakistain of firing missiles into Afghan border regions, killing and displacing hundreds of Afghans.
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... has said that Pakistain had fired 470 rockets over the border in June, but Pakistain denies firing any missiles.
On Monday the Afghan House of Representatives in a statement strongly condemned Pak missile attacks into Afghanistan that has continued for a couple of weeks.
Afghan politicians urged Pakistain to put an immediate end to its deadly bombardments over bordering villages of the country.
Parliamentarians warned that the attacks would have perilous consequences ahead in relations between the two nations.
Residents in the Afghan villages under Pak border shelling reported a new round of shelling from Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
Is it normal to be attacked for several hours and only shoot four of the attackers? I don't wish to judge unfairly out of ignorance.
[Tolo News] At least 15 Talibs were killed in joint Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... forces operation in eastern Nangarhar ...on the main road from Lovely Peshawar. The capital is Jalalabad. The population of 1,334,000 consists mostly of Pashtuns with a few Arabs and Pashais... province on Sunday night, local officials said on Monday.
The operation was launched last night in Khoghyani district of Nangarhar province to clear it of bad boys, Mohammad Hassan, district chief of Khoghyani told TOLOnews.
Mr Hassan said that the bully boyz killed in the operation were foreigners, but he did not provide further details.
There were no Afghan, NATO and civilian causalities in the operation, he added.
Khogyani is considered one of the insecure districts where Talibs have been active.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Afghan border police captured 7 forces of Evil who dressed up like girls, in Nangarhar ...on the main road from Lovely Peshawar. The capital is Jalalabad. The population of 1,334,000 consists mostly of Pashtuns with a few Arabs and Pashais... province on Monday, local officials said.
Afghan border police commander in eastern Afghanistan, Aminullah Amarkhil, said that men were captured in a border police ambush in Nazyan district of Nangarhar province on Monday.
Mr Amarkhil said five of them are Pak civilians and one of them had a boom jacket.
He added that border police had received information about the forces of Evil before they crossed the border.
"Foreign Taliban, five of them Pak Taliban and two of them Afghans, came to Nangarhar and wanted to kill innocent people," Gen. Amarkhil said.
Mr Amarkhil said the border police also seized six weapons from the terrorists.
Militants often use burkas to carry out their attacks and some forces of Evil disguised in burqas have previously been captured by Afghan security organizations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Tolo News] Around three hundreds 
[Tolo News] Afghan border police captured 7 
