EFL:As Pakistani troops make a push towards the border, US military units are stepping up anti-Taliban patrols in southern Afghanistan in an attempt to trap and annihilate Islamic militant units. Optimism is running high among American commanders, who note that fighting conditions in southern Afghanistan have experienced a sudden shift in favor of US and Afghan government military forces. According to Col. Gary Cheek, the commander of the joint force at the Salerno Forward Operating Base in Khost Province, a marked decline in support among the local population for the Islamic insurgency is hampering the fighting capability of Taliban-al Qaeda units. Cheek added in an interview, conducted before the launch of Pakistan's latest security sweep, that the Taliban's inability to follow through on threats to disrupt Afghanistan's presidential election in early October severely damaged the movement's credibility among conservative inhabitants of Khost and other southern Afghan provinces.
"I would never want to write off our enemy, but clearly the Taliban lost a major battle during the elections," Cheek said. "We believe the Taliban is severely fractured as an insurgency movement, and not capable of organized military operations." Cheek also indicated that the US military would look to mount psychological operations designed to widen the perceived split within the Islamic radical ranks. "I think it is time the low-ranking Taliban to give up their quest and rejoin society," Cheek said. |