Posts Tagged “Afghanistan”
Posted by: admin in Afghanistan, Wars and Rumors of Wars, tags: Afghanistan, Army Corps Of Engineers, David McKiernan, Dutch Soldiers, John Mccain, John Nicholson, Kandahar Province, Nato Headquarters, Nato Soldiers, Robert Gates, Southern Afghanistan, Southern Rim, Taliban
Source: Yahoo! News
Afghanistan’s southern rim, the Taliban’s spiritual birthplace and the country’s most violent region, has for the last two years been the domain of British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers.
That’s about to change.
In what amounts to an Afghan version of the surge in Iraq, the U.S. is preparing to pour at least 20,000 extra troops into the south, augmenting 12,500 NATO soldiers who have proved too few to cope with a Taliban insurgency that is fiercer than NATO leaders expected.
New construction at Kandahar Air Field foreshadows the upcoming infusion of American power. Runways and housing are being built, along with two new U.S. outposts in Taliban-held regions of Kandahar province.
And in the past month the south has been the focus of visiting U.S. and other dignitaries — Sen. John McCain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. congressional delegations and leaders from NATO headquarters in Europe.
For the first time since NATO took over the country in 2006, an experienced U.S. general, Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, is assigned to the south.
He says U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, NATO’s commander in Afghanistan, has made the objectives clear in calling the situation in the south a stalemate and asking for more troops, on top of the 32,000 Americans already in Afghanistan.
“By introducing more U.S. capability in here we have the potential to change the game,” Nicholson said.
The Army Corps of Engineers will spend up to $1.3 billion in new construction for troop placements in southern Afghanistan, said the corps commander in Afghanistan, Col. Thomas O’Donovan.
Violence in Afghanistan has spiked in the last two years, and Taliban militants now control wide swaths of countryside. Military officials say they have enough troops to win battles but not to hold territory, and they hope the influx of troops, plus the continued growth of the Afghan army, will change that.
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 Defense Secretary Robert Gates Source: washingtonpost.com
The Pentagon is moving to get three of the four combat brigades requested by commanders into Afghanistan by summer, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said as he traveled here to meet with military leaders.
In his most specific comments to date about how soon he will meet the call for up to 20,000 more troops in Afghanistan, Gates said he will not have to cut troop levels further in Iraq to free up at least two of those three brigades for Afghan duty.
At the same time, Gates said a key “course correction” in the Afghanistan war for the administration of President-elect Barack Obama will be to build up the Afghan army and better cooperate with Kabul on security operations.
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Source: Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
The top U.S. general in Afghanistan said more American troops are needed quickly in that country to quell rising violence by Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents.
Army General David McKiernan said the U.S. and its allies will need to beef up forces until the Afghan army and government reach a “tipping point” in their ability to combat insurgents.
McKiernan, briefing reporters at the Pentagon, said he believes at least four additional combat brigades, plus support forces, will be needed in Afghanistan in the near term. An Army combat brigade typically contains about 3,500 soldiers.
“We’re facing a tougher threat right now,” McKiernan said. “The additional military capabilities that have been asked for are needed as quickly as possible.”
There are currently about 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, according to the Defense Department.
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Source: Reuters
Pakistani security forces have killed 20 militants in fighting in a northwestern region on the Afghan border, a security official said on Thursday, as sharp differences on terrorism surfaced with the United States.
An intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan has brought more pressure on Pakistan to go after militants operating out of sanctuaries in remote enclaves on its side of the border. It has also led to a sharp increase in U.S. strikes on militants in Pakistan.
The new government in Islamabad says it is committed to the campaign against militancy, launched after the September 11 attacks seven years ago, but bans incursions by U.S. troops.
In the latest fighting in the Bajaur region, Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed 20 militants in an attack on a militant stronghold in the village of Rashkai that began on Wednesday, security officials said.
“We’ve almost taken control of the area. Our troops are advancing and the operation is likely to be finished today,” said an official who declined to be identified.
A military official said four soldiers were also killed and some Arabs were among the dead militants.
Militants in Bajaur, where some analysts believed top al Qaeda leaders have been hiding, frequently cross into Afghanistan to attack Western troops and government forces there.
Violence in Afghanistan has soared over the past two years as al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have regrouped and the U.S. military said on Wednesday it was not winning there and would revise its strategy to combat militant havens in Pakistan.
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