Updated!

Bill Roggio has an updated report on a recent border incident (I believe it is this one) that clearly shows how the Taliban and al-Qaeda are trying to start a war between Afghanistan and Pakistan:

A cross border incident that resulted in Pakistani and Afghan security forces casualties was launched by the Taliban with the intent to “to spark a border incident,” the International Security Assistance Force reported.

“Insurgents simultaneously fired at targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan on the evening of July 10,” ISAF reported in a press release. Afghan police in Paktika province and a Pakistani military unit along the border in South Waziristan reported taking mortar fire at the same time, the US military stated. Eight Pakistani soldiers and four Afghan police were reported wounded in the initial attack.

The US military determined the origin of mortar fire to have started at two points inside Afghanistan and returned fire with artillery and a laser-guided GBU-13 bomb dropped from an F-15. The US fires were “verified to have hit the origins of insurgent fire.”

The militants were trying to get the two sides to believe they were under attack from their ally. Sadly some fools in the Pakistan government fell for it. This also makes sense in light of the twin bombings by terrorists inside the capitols of both countries.

These lame attempts probably will not work. Our military systems, combined with our forensic know-how, make it very difficult for the Islamists to create a solid staged attack. Both Afghanistan and Pakistan are our allies and we give them the information to show how they are being manipulated by the militants through these violent acts.

If anything, these clumsy attempts to suck Pakistan into a war with Afghanistan and America will cripple the support for the Militants inside Pakistan. It may already have done so. There may be a real solid reason behind the rumors that the US will be ramping up operations in the Pakistan Tribal zone soon.

Part of the intensity along the border is the fact US Marines have come into the area and began kicking terrorist butts. See here for one small example:

Government presence in the largely empty desert south of the district centre all the way to the Pakistan border some 80 km (50 miles) distant has always been either poor or non-existent, said Captain John Moder of the U.S. Marines.

His men’s mission, he said, was to secure a perimeter around the town, which had been captured by the Taliban, and help the government establish its authority in the area. The long-term plan is to extend that perimeter, he said.

Although the district centre is now under control of U.S. Marines, there are still insurgents left in the surrounding areas, but Marines are not being engaged like before.

The Marines were sent to Garmsir as the more than 8,000 mainly British forces in Helmand, holding a string of bases to the north, did not have the numbers to take the town alone.

Since beginning the operation the U.S. Marines have killed more than 400 Taliban, the governor of Helmand said this week, a figure the U.S. military supports. This attempt to create conflict between the forces to the north (Afghan, US and NATO) and those to the south (Pakistan military, Frontier Corps recruits and pro-government Tribes) may be a last ditch effort to avoid utter defeat. This is the last large sanctuary for al-Qaeda and the extremist Taliban fighters, and the noose is tightening. Too slow for me, but it is tightening.

Reader CJ_thespook has a husband son deployed in there now, and from what she has shared with us it seems safe to say the Taliban are feeling a lot of pressure and are running from our forces, back towards Pakistan.

Update: Yes indeed, things are heating up and we lost 9 brave heroes today:

Nato reported that the small American Combat Outpost in Dara-I-Pech district of Kunar Province, on the border with Nuristan Province in the east of the country, came under heavy fire at around 4.30am local time. Heavy fighting continued throughout the day with US forces calling in artillery, fast jets and Apache helicopters.

Nato spokesmen warned of casualties “on both sides”, and in the last few minutes it has emerged that nine American soldiers were killed, making it one of the biggest single losses in a day for the coalition since military operations began in the country.

…

The fighting is close to where US forces were accused of killing 15 civilians in an airstrike nine days ago. The governor of Nuristan, Doctor Hazrat Hazratin Noor, told The Times: “The Taliban attacked the US base yesterday and the American planes bombed the area. After the attack, the US troops decided to move their base to the district centre of Wanat and they tried to build shelters there in the bazaar overnight. Now the Taliban have attacked again.”

My guess (and hope) is these 9 brave Americans inflicted incredibly heavy damage on our enemies – as has been the pattern historically. God’s speed to our fallen heroes.

Tags: Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, NATO, Pakistan, Taliban, US Marines