Mar 13 2008
Updates On The War On Terror In Afghanistan
Seems we have been on the move in two areas in Afghanistan. First are efforts to take the battle to the militant Taliban hideouts:
US-led coalition forces killed nearly a dozen Taliban militants in raids on rebel hideouts in dangerous southern Afghanistan, the coalition said in a statement on Thursday.
Coalition forces were searching compounds in the Garmsir district of restive Helmand province targeting “Taliban foreign fighters” on Tuesday as they came under attack, said the statement.
“Nearly a dozen militants were killed and two suspected militants were detained during a coalition forces operation to degrade Taliban support networks,” it said.
Even better news as allied forces stopped the movement of Taliban fighters from entering Pakistan in what could only have been a move to reinforce terrorist forces there:
Forty-one Taliban members, including their commander, were killed by a joint Afghan-US force while they were trying to cross into Pakistan, a provincial governor in southern Afghanistan said on Thursday.
The militants were killed while crossing the borders of the Afghan provinces of Nimruz and Helmand into Pakistan, Nimruz Governor Ghulom Dastagir Azaad said.
They could have also been fleeing the sweeps mentioned in the first article. Clearly we are shrinking the operational area and mobility of the terrorists in their last enclaves.
Check out this story, AJ – first confirmed US cross border attack takes out high level Taliban targets in Waziristan:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/03/unprecedented_coalit.php
confirms your take that a major move against the Taliban is under way.
AJ,
My husband is there and I can tell you the Marines are arriving and more on the way! Get ready to RUMBLEEEEE!!
That story by Matt Dupee over at Roggio’s site is HUGE. It signals a sea change in the battle against the Taliban. “Run of the mill” militants can no longer simply move across the border to Pakistan and escape attack.
Their areas of safe haven are disappearing. It seems that the rules of engagement now simply require that we declare that an imminent threat exists from rebels across the border.