What's new

Hundreds of Taliban fighters battle Afghan forces near Kabul: officials

Sugarcane

ELITE MEMBER
Joined
Jun 2, 2011
Messages
21,105
Reaction score
29
Country
Pakistan
Location
Pakistan
(Reuters) - As many as 700 heavily armed Taliban insurgents are battling Afghan security forces in Logar, a key province near the capital Kabul, local officials said on Tuesday, in a test of the Afghan military's strength as foreign forces pull out of the country.

Militants have this summer mounted increasingly intensive assaults across several provinces, often involving hundreds of fighters, as the country braces to stand on it own feet militarily for the first time in nearly 13 years.

"There are some 700 of them and they are fighting Afghan forces for territorial control and they have also brought with them makeshift mobile (health) clinics," Niaz Mohammad Amiri, the provincial governor of Logar province, told Reuters by telephone.

The Taliban have dug-in in Logar, which lies about an hour's drive south of Kabul, and nearby Wardak province to the west, in recent years. They have used the provinces - gateways to the capital - as launchpads for hit-and-run attacks and suicide bombings on Kabul.

The main roads into the capital are all tightly controlled, but the militants have still been able to breach the checkpoints and staged dozens of attacks, killing scores of civilians and soldiers in the city of about five million this year.

Abdul Hakim Esaaqzai, the police chief of Logar province, said the insurgents, armed with heavy machine guns, were fighting Afghan forces from residential areas in Charkh district.

"We are being extra careful not to cause any civilian casualties. We have enough forces to deal with it," Esaaqzai said.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the militants were battling Afghan forces from all sides to overrun the district. "The area is under siege and we have already taken over many security outposts and killed many Afghan forces," he told Reuters by telephone.

The fighting in Logar is a grim reminder of the insecurity plaguing Afghanistan as the foreign combat troops wind down their military operations ahead a deadline to leave the country by the end of the year.

Afghanistan's security arrangements beyond 2014 are unclear, as Kabul and Washington have yet to sign a bilateral security agreement designed to keep a small force of American soldiers in Afghanistan next year and into 2016.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign the agreement, although the two men vying to replace him have vowed to implement it immediately upon taking office. However, four months after going to the polls, a winner in the presidential poll is still not clear.

TALIBAN CHALLENGE

The International Crisis Group said in a report earlier this year that the number of Islamist insurgent attacks had increased by 15-20 percent in 2013 from a year earlier.

The insurgents' success, however, has been limited. They have yet to capture an entire province, and the government says strategic assets remain broadly under its control.

Nevertheless, the mounting intensity of the Taliban's assaults poses an increasingly serious challenge to local security forces that have long relied on NATO support from the air.

With less and less U.S. air cover, Taliban fighters have changed tactics and now attack Afghan military posts in larger numbers with the aim of taking and holding ground, a shift from the hit-and-run strikes with posses of gunmen, explosives and suicide bombers.

“The Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) have the lead for security of the nation. They are trained, capable, and prepared to face any challenge,” said Major Paul Greenberg, a public affairs officer at ISAF Joint Command.

"ISAF will continue to back up the ANSF and provide support, to include aviation assets upon request of the ANSF," he added.

In this year's summer offensive, the Taliban appears to have mostly focused on gaining ground in strategic parts of the country, like border crossings or highways that facilitate the export of opium, the financial lifeblood of their insurgency.

Afghan officials say uncertainty in Kabul over the outcome of this year's presidential election to choose Karzai's successor has added to the vulnerability of the security forces.

Two months have passed since the run-off round of the election was held, but a winner has yet to emerge due to accusations of mass fraud and rivals Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani have both claimed victory.

(Additional reporting by Krista Mahr in Kabul; Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)


Hundreds of Taliban fighters battle Afghan forces near Kabul: officials| Reuters
 
A civil war is on the horizon. After the ISAF withdrawal, competing interests are going to make a hash out of Afghanistan. These are the Northern Alliance, the Taliban, local warlords, Iran, China, Pakistan, Russia, the US, India, and the Central Asian republics, all wanting a share of the pie.

It's going to be one big mess.
 
A civil war is on the horizon. After the ISAF withdrawal, competing interests are going to make a hash out of Afghanistan. These are the Northern Alliance, the Taliban, local warlords, Iran, China, Pakistan, Russia, the US, India, and the Central Asian republics, all wanting a share of the pie.

It's going to be one big mess.

The US is not leaving that area. They will have a presence big enough to support their own goals for the next 15 years. The thing is as of right now where is the close air support for the afghan troops that are battling the 700 taliban?
 
The US is not leaving that area. They will have a presence big enough to support their own goals for the next 15 years. The thing is as of right now where is the close air support for the afghan troops that are battling the 700 taliban?
They will few thousand behind but if they loose many in one big strike these will also run away
 
They will few thousand behind but if they loose many in one big strike these will also run away

Thats unimportant. The US knows how to manage small bases the world over. This is not their first rodeo. The problem right now is why do they not give close air support to the afghan troops or why is that news not being printed. Air support saves lives. Afghan soldiers should be protected like allies.

Embedded media from this media site is no longer available
 
Last edited:
The US is not leaving that area. They will have a presence big enough to support their own goals for the next 15 years. The thing is as of right now where is the close air support for the afghan troops that are battling the 700 taliban?
Correct. One division of US Marines would be stationed in Afghanistan - Kabul, Southern and Eastern Afghanistan. Probably a brigade each as well as 1000 troops from Germany for 'training' purposes but armed for combat if the need arises. Whether that would be sufficient force to counter the Afghan Taliban is the moot question.

The US is most likely providing close air support and the probable reason why the Afghan Taliban have not been successful in spite of a battalion strength attacking the ANA.
 
Correct. One division of US Marines would be stationed in Afghanistan - Kabul, Southern and Eastern Afghanistan. Probably a brigade each as well as 1000 troops from Germany for 'training' purposes but armed for combat if the need arises. Whether that would be sufficient force to counter the Afghan Taliban is the moot question.

The US is most likely providing close air support and the probable reason why the Afghan Taliban have not been successful in spite of a battalion strength attacking the ANA.

ANA in a defensive position with a lot more than 700 soldiers. It wouldn't have been highlighted as even a skirmish with US airpower. I would wait for the whole news since reporting from that side is extremely shoddy and over exaggerated.
 
ANA in a defensive position with a lot more than 700 soldiers. It wouldn't have been highlighted as even a skirmish with US airpower. I would wait for the whole news since reporting from that side is extremely shoddy and over exaggerated.

Last year there was an offensive where ANA defeat Taliban.But this seems more tougher than that.
 
Last edited:
Last year there was an offensive where ANA defeat Taliban.But this seems more tougher than that.

I followed that as well. Helmand. Taliban stronghold of Sangin still under their control and took over more outposts in the area. ANA beat back an attack but could not hold the advance and had to fall back.
 
Thats unimportant. The US knows how to manage small bases the world over. This is not their first rodeo. The problem right now is why do they not give close air support to the afghan troops or why is that news not being printed. Air support saves lives. Afghan soldiers should be protected like allies.

Embedded media from this media site is no longer available
Most small bases are in those countries which are friendly too or those people only protest but here they attack and keep on attacking
 
Most small bases are in those countries which are friendly too or those people only protest but here they attack and keep on attacking

Yes. That much is true. The defenses of those bases are according to the friendly level of those countries. With a heavy amount of bases in the middle east these bases are well protected due to terrain. The Afghan bases are small and terrain inhospitable. Those bases are unsuccessfully attacked to prong defenses. An attack like beirut where hundreds of US soldiers were killed is not a deterrent for them to run away, they maintain bases in lebanon to this day and evolve according to the threat. The last successful taliban attack in recent memory is where they destroyed a lot of harrier jets.
 
Tome send Gurkha regiment of IA to save the day. :rolleyes:
 
Back
Top Bottom