Taliban Fighters Infiltrate Area Near Southern Afghan City

[AZXD]

It appears that the focus needs to shift.
Prison breaks and cities being over-run.
Not good!!

I guess the stories of regroupings outside of Iraq ... Might have some weight behind them, if it is determined that some of these people were once in Iraq.

June 17, 2008

Taliban Fighters Infiltrate Area Near Southern Afghan City

By CARLOTTA GALL
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Hundreds of Taliban fighters have swarmed into a strategically important district just outside Kandahar, the biggest city in southern Afghanistan, in an apparent push for control just days after 400 Taliban members escaped in spectacular breakout from the Kandahar prison, officials said Monday.

Afghan military reinforcements arrived in Kandahar on Monday and have already deployed in Kandahar Province, NATO spokesman Mark Laity said. The soldiers flew from Kabul and more could be expected to follow, he said. NATO forces based in Kandahar Province have also redeployed to be better prepared for any potential threat, he said.

A government spokesman, Parwez Najib, confirmed the news that Taliban fighters had infiltrated parts of the district of Argandab. “There is not fighting yet,” he said. Afghan and foreign forces were aware of the presence of the Taliban, he added.

It was unclear whether any of the fighters had been among the prison escapees.

The move by the Taliban on Argandab, a district that is critical to the security of the city of Kandahar and therefore to the entire south of Afghanistan, comes amid an increased sense of crisis in Afghanistan.
Kandahar is still reeling from a brazen attack by the Taliban on the Kandahar prison,, in which they released some 1,200 prisoners, 400 of whom were members of the Taliban, including some district commanders.

In a sign of his increasing frustration at the threats against his government, President Hamid Karzai threatened Sunday to send Afghan troops across into Pakistan to hit militant leaders who have vowed to continue a jihad in Afghanistan.

His comments, which Pakistan protested Monday, were welcomed by Afghan tribesmen gathered for a council meeting in the southeastern province of Paktika. “People here have long been asking the government to solve the problem of infiltration from Pakistan,” the provincial governor, Muhammad Akram Khapalwak, said after the meeting.

“People were saying today that Mr. Karzai has been too late in saying this, and it should have been said two years ago,” he said.

In Argandab, local journalists working for the BBC and Al Jazeera quoted local government officials as saying that 500 Taliban fighters had swarmed into 10 villages in the district.

Families were fleeing from their homes in the district of Argandab to take refuge in the city, they said. Some of the families said they had been told by the Taliban to leave, an indication the Taliban intended to make a stand and fight.

Argandab is a rich, thickly populated river valley of orchards and vineyards running northwest from Kandahar into a range of barren mountains that have been a refuge for mujahedeen fighters and Taliban insurgents.
Control of Argandab is considered critical to control of the city of Kandahar and has been the source of forces that have seized control of the city in the past.

The Taliban have been pushing into Argandab for months and have made several attacks on police posts and tribal leaders from the area over the last year. The loss of Mullah Naqibullah, the longtime leader of the Alokozai tribe that populates Argandab, and another senior commander, Abdul Hakim Jan, who was killed in a huge suicide bombing in February, has critically depleted the tribe, which always fiercely opposed the Taliban.

Canadian troops and Afghan police successfully pushed back a Taliban force after it made a brief show of force in the district of Argandab in October last year. Families fled as the troops moved into the district but the Taliban fell back quickly and the operation was over within days.

[Judge]

I think it has more to do with 1) Pak's capitulation and surrender. This has freed up Taliban resources and 2) the taliban has always (except for last year) kicked up dust in the spring... Watch shortly now that Petraeus now has command of that theater also, we'll be kickin' their ass somemore.

They also only strike where either there are no troops or where there are NATO troops with severe ROE. I think that's about to change also. Britain just agreed to send more troops also and France may yet aid the effort. Now get Germany to remove their stupid ROE, and the Canucks, Dutch and US will have some real allies.

[AZXD]

Yea, I read about Britian. But France ... I doubt it.

[KEVWYO]

Could an Afghanistan surge be in the future? Afghanistan has needed more boots on the ground for about two years.

[ZenMachine]

Originally Posted by KEVWYO

Could an Afghanistan surge be in the future? Afghanistan has needed more boots on the ground for about two years.

Maybe, but where would they come from? We are already over-extended as it is.

[AZXD]

Selective Service and with a slight re-wording to preference military service ... Welcome to the DREAM Act.

That's two possibilities that are already available, or in the works.

"And Barack Obama will require you to work.

He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism, that you put down your division, that you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones, that you push yourselves to be better, and that you engage.


Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual - uninvolved, uninformed..."


Perhaps this is an alternate meaning to the words. Military service for the conscripts

Originally Posted by ZenMachine

Maybe, but where would they come from? We are already over-extended as it is.

[KEVWYO]

Originally Posted by AZXD

Selective Service and with a slight re-wording to preference military service ... Welcome to the DREAM Act.

That's two possibilities that are already available, or in the works.

"And Barack Obama will require you to work.

He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism, that you put down your division, that you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones, that you push yourselves to be better, and that you engage.


Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual - uninvolved, uninformed..."


Perhaps this is an alternate meaning to the words. Military service for the conscripts

I thought we were talking about Afghanistan???? AZXD, I could say I like Costco paper plates and you'd find a way to bring Obama into the discussion.

[AZXD]

Originally Posted by KEVWYO

I thought we were talking about Afghanistan???? AZXD, I could say I like Costco paper plates and you'd find a way to bring Obama into the discussion.

[XDConvert9mm]

Originally Posted by KEVWYO

I thought we were talking about Afghanistan???? AZXD, I could say I like Costco paper plates and you'd find a way to bring Obama into the discussion.

It's well known that Obama buys his paper plates at Costco...

[AZXD]

Costco is a importer of Chinese products that is only rivaled by Wal-Mart in it's ability to move products from China to the United States!!

The China Democratic Socialist Party (CDSP) platform was to promote democratic socialism in China, world peace, individual freedoms, economic development, a narrowing of the gap between rich and poor, and equal rights for women. The party also sought the implementation of a social welfare system for public health and social security.

Thus China is seen as a great model for Obama to mold his vision of the NEW United States after

Yep, KEV is right again