[Hot Air] When we first learned back in January that peace talks with the Taliban were underway, I expressed a number of concerns. The Taliban are murderous, repressive thugs who can’t be trusted for much of anything. But at the same time, I was forced to admit that we were running out of options unless we are willing to concede that we’re going to be in Afghanistan forever, propping up a government that controls a decreasing amount of territory every year.
The peace talks may be continuing, but the Taliban is proving once again that they speak out of two sides of their faces. The Boston Globe reports this week that even as the peace talks are underway, the former rulers of Afghanistan are out there ambushing the government’s military forces. This week they wiped out an entire company.
Taliban fighters killed or captured an entire Afghan National Army company of more than 50 soldiers Monday, Afghan officials said, the latest in a series of major attacks by the militant group even as it pursues a peace deal with the United States.
The attack, in which the Taliban were reported to have killed 16 soldiers and taken 40 prisoners, took place in northwestern Badghis province, close to the country’s western border with Turkmenistan. It came as Taliban negotiators entered a third week of talks with US diplomats in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Qatar.
In the assault, a large force of Taliban insurgents surrounded a base in the Bala Murghab district. After four hours of fighting, the militants captured or killed all of the soldiers in their base, as well as others at two outposts nearby, according to Abdul Aziz Beg, head of the Badghis provincial council.
At this point, the city of Bala Murghab and the surrounding Badghis province in northwestern Afghanistan is essentially lost. Much like many of the other rural provinces, the Taliban have almost completely retaken control and both government forces and American troops can only travel out there in force with any safety. The residents of those regions are effectively back under Taliban rule.
This represents yet another reason that we’re not going to get away with any sort of Nixonian "peace with honor" situation by simply declaring victory and going home. The first victories came when we initially broke the Taliban’s hold on the nation during the first months and years after our arrival and oversaw their (mostly) free and fair elections. The real victory came when OBL was finally shot in the head and dumped unceremoniously into the ocean. (And that didn’t even happen in Afghanistan.)
#3
Jazz Shaw obviously hasn't read very much history. Peace talks are typically accompanied by ferocious offensives. The point is to pressure the other side to make concessions, and to maximize one's gains before the final ceasefire, after which everyone's supposed to stop armed activity in observance of the final treaty. If our guys are not holding the Taliban's face to a lit stove turned up to maximum, somebody at the White House is not doing his job. And as it turns out, I believe our guys are in fact bombing the heck out of the Taliban. But short of a Chinese style strategy of depopulating enemy sanctuaries via removal, starvation or massacre (the first two of which were features of the the winning of the West), it's hard to see a quick resolution to the war.
You can't just kill the Taliban - you have to kill all the able-bodied men related to the Taliban who could quickly become (or are secretly) Taliban. In wartime, there is no room for beyond a reasonable doubt, even for a country with the biggest economy in the world. Given domestic sensibilities, the way we're forced to fight this war is very different from the Taliban's and that is why we cannot win it. If we fought it like the Taliban, they would already be defeated. Of course, millions of Taliban and suspected Taliban supporters would be lying in mass graves.
There are reasons for our qualms. Rules that are used against foreigners might be used against our own in the event of another civil war. At the same time, they tie our hands in fighting another nation's civil war. While I think it's worthwhile holding to our rules of engagement for big picture domestic reasons, they mean that we need to be realistic about cutting our losses when our local allies in foreign civil wars can't cut the mustard. Our Afghan allies have had huge amounts of aid pumped into their economy. 20 years is long enough.
#4
Given domestic sensibilities, the way we're forced to fight this war is very different from the Taliban's and that is why we cannot win it.
I should say we cannot win it at a cost acceptable to us - $40b a year for as long as the eye can see. On the other hand, it may make sense to extend a annual stipend of several billion dollars a year to the current Afghan regime. The guy supported by the Soviets actually kept it together right up to the point that they cut off his funding. That stipend will (1) give him and other big men in the regime a fighting chance and (2) force them to strip down their decision-making in a direction that favors winning the war, thereby staying alive.
#5
Er the great game is played by getting tribes to fight each other and covertly supporting one side to cleanse the area of troublesome tribes. But the important corollary is to never let one tribe get bigger than the others!
[ToloNews] Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, a local journalist in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , was maimed in an embedded IED blast in Kart-e-Lagan area in Lashkargah city on Tuesday morning, the provincial governor’s media office said in a statement.
Ahmadi was on the way to his office when the IED embedded to his car detonated.
The statement said Ahmadi in a stable condition and is under treatment at a hospital in Lashkargah city.
Ahmadi is working for Sabawoon TV channel in Helmand.
No group has grabbed credit for the attack.
This comes as Afghanistan has ranked among deadliest countries for journalists.
The Afghan government has always committed to supporting journalists and freedom of the press. However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... reports show that journalists are still facing different kinds of threats.
Government’s statistics show that there are 96 TV channels, 65 radio stations and 911 print media in Kabul, as well as 107 TV channels, 284 radio stations, and 416 print media in other provinces. He says there are 1,879 active media outlets in Afghanistan which are called as one of the main achievements of the country in the past 18 years.
[KhaamaPress] A clash broke out between Afghan armed forces and Death Eaters of the Red Unit of Taliban ...Arabic for students... in northern Baghlan province leaving at least 12 dead or maimed.
The 209th Shaheen Corps in a statement said the clash took place at around 10:10 am todayin Tapa Qarghan area of Dand-e-Ghori district, leaving at least 4 Talibs dead and 4 others maimed.
The statement further added that two soldiers of Public Order Forces of the military also bit the dust in the clash and two others sustained injuries.
According to 209th Shaheen Corps, the clash broke out after Talibs attacked on security outposts of Public Order Forces.
An 822mm rocket launcher and some weapons were also confiscated following the clash, the 209th Shaheen Corps said, adding that the dead bodies of two Death Eaters were also left in the area.
This comes as the security situation in some remote areas of Baghlan province has tanked during the recent years.
[KhaamaPress] Three key group members of Taliban ...Arabic for students... have been tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! during an operation of the Afghan Intelligence operatives in northern Baghlan province.
The National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) said Monday that the network was busted during an operation of NDS Special Forces.
The statement further added that the detained individuals are Bahadur son of Abdul Ghias who was a member of the intelligence network of the group in Baghlan province, Ramiz son of Mohiuddin who had infiltrated in police ranks and was working as a recruitment officer in Baghlan police commandment, and Hedyatulalh son of Syed Rahim who was working as a driver and was involved in destructive activities, collection of information regarding the military and security institutions.
The anti-government armed krazed killer groups including Taliban have not commented regarding the report so far.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Military in the North has announced that the National Defense and Security Forces have launched Walid-40 operations in northern Balkh province.
The 209th Shaheen Corps in a statement said at least six Talibs were killed or maimed during the first day of operations.
The statement further added that the operations have been launched to suppress bandidosholy warriors and eliminate existing threats.
According to Shaheen Corps, the Afghan Special Forces and Air Forces have also taken part in the newly-launched Walid-40 operations.
At least three Talibs were killed and three others were maimed during the first day of operations in Baba Qushqar area of Chematal district, the 209th Shaheen Corps said, addign that several fighting postions of Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... have fallen into the hands of armed forces so far.
The anti-government armed bandidosholy warriors including Taliban have not commented regarding the operations so far.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Two Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... holy warriors were killed Tuesday in an Arclight airstrike by the U.S.-led international coalition warplanes in the Iraqi province of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... a security source was quoted as saying.
"Jet fighters of the U.S.-led international coalition targeted a gathering of Islamic State faceless myrmidons near al-Rashad district, in southern Kirkuk," the source told Watan News Agency.
"The airstrike left two IS holy warriors dead," the source said, adding that other IS faceless myrmidons expeditiously departed at a goodly pace following the air raid.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/13/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Somehow 2 low level evils for an airstrike doesn't seem very cost effective.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraqi security forces seized on Tuesday an arms depot of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... terrorist group in al-Qa’im district in the western province of Anbar.
"A huge cache of home-made explosives charge and mortar shells were found inside the depot," Almaalomah news website quoted the Iraqi Military Intelligence Directorate as saying in a press statement.
"All the explosive charges were detonated at the scene by specialized troops," the statement read, adding that the ammunition was left by IS Death Eaters after their defeat at the hands of the Iraqi army in 2017.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/13/2019 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Site closed Tuesday after firekaboom damaged a police post near the shrine compound.
Jerusalem Police chief Doron Yadid ordered the Temple Mount compound reopened to Moslem worshipers on Wednesday morning after the holy site was shuttered Tuesday following a firekaboom on a police post.
Police said one officer was treated for mild smoke inhalation after the firekaboom on the post situated on the edge of the sensitive holy site, while 10 suspects were incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! Police said two minors are "linked" to the attack and will be brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday to extend their remand.
The closure sparked riots in the compound, the holiest site in Judaism and home to Islam’s third-holiest shrine. It led the Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, terror group to call on Paleostinians to protest in a mass march to the al-Aqsa Mosque to "defy the ’Israeli’ occupation’s decision to close it and impose the will of the worshipers to enter and exit the mosque when they want."
Tuesday’s incident came amid already high tensions at the Temple Mount, and drew widespread condemnation from Moslem officials and an expression of "concern" from the UN.
Police were deployed around the Old City and East Jerusalem amid fears of a violent backlash, but there were no reports of disturbances.
Paleostinian officials claimed Tuesday the Israel Police had staged the firekaboom. Bassem Abu Labda, an official from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf which administers the site at the behest of the Jordanian monarchy, told The Times of Israel that mosque authorities "did not see any Molotov cocktail thrown at the police. We are against all acts of violence and we condemn Israel’s actions in the al-Aqsa Mosque today. Israel must reopen the mosque immediately."
Earlier, Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... denounced the closure as a "dangerous Israeli escalation" and warned of "serious repercussions."
The firekaboom came as tensions over the holy site have ratcheted up in recent weeks over a long-sealed area on the compound near the Gate of Mercy. Moslem worshipers have repeatedly threatened to enter the Gate of Mercy site, which was closed by court order in 2003 over allegations that the group overseeing it was tied to Hamas.
The longstanding closure of the site has ignited tensions between Paleostinian worshipers and Israeli police in recent weeks. Worshipers have forced the area open and entered on several occasions. High-level Israeli and Jordanian officials have been holding talks in the hope of defusing the situation. Last week, Israeli officials traveled to Jordan for meetings, and Jordanian officials have also visited Jerusalem according to Israeli reports.
The area inside the Gate of Mercy was sealed off by Israeli authorities in 2003, and it has been kept closed to stop illegal construction work there by the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. The actual Gate of Mercy, which is a fortified gateway in the retaining wall surrounding the Temple Mount, has been bricked up for nearly 500 years. Israeli officials believe the work carried out by the Waqf, which refused to allow any Israeli observers, led to the destruction of antiquities from periods of Jewish presence in the area.
Last month, the Waqf reopened the site and Paleostinian worshipers began to use it as a mosque, despite Israeli attempts to keep the area sealed.
[IsraelTimes] Police say they have found several containers containing flammable materials, as well as fireworks and Molotov cocktails during searches on the Temple Mount after Paleostinians hurled a Molotov cocktail at Israel Police.
Ten Paleostinians have been jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! since.
[IsraelTimes] Army says dozens of Paleostinians threw rocks at soldiers in Salfit during reported raids to take security camera footage.
A Paleostinian man died after being shot by Israeli forces during festivities Tuesday in the West Bank, medics and the Paleostinian Authority health ministry said.
The army said dozens of Paleostinians rioted in the village of Salfit and threw rocks at Israeli troops, who responded with riot dispersal means. An army spokesperson said "there was no known use of live fire."
The Red Islamic Thingy emergency medical services said they evacuated a man maimed during the festivities. The health ministry pronounced his death and named him as Mohammed Shaheen, 23. According to the official Paleostinian news outlet Wafa, he had been hit in the chest with a bullet.
The festivities erupted as Israeli soldiers raided the village to take footage from surveillance cameras, according to Wafa.
The fighting followed a series of other violent incidents in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on Tuesday.
In Hebron, soldiers rubbed out a Paleostinian man who the Israel Defense Forces said tried to stab them.
"IDF soldiers spotted the terrorist armed with a knife as he ran toward them. The soldiers pushed the terrorist back as he tried to run into a nearby civilian building. The soldiers shot the terrorist, thwarting the attack, and he was killed," the army said.
Later on Tuesday, Israeli police shuttered the Temple Mount holy site after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at officers, further adding to recent tensions at the flashpoint holy site. Israeli authorities said the site would reopen on Wednesday.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli soldiers rubbed out a Paleostinian man as he tried to stab them in the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday, the military said.
No servicemen were maimed in the incident, the Israel Defense Forces said.
"IDF soldiers spotted the terrorist armed with a knife as he ran toward them. The soldiers pushed the terrorist back as he tried to run into a nearby civilian building. The soldiers shot the terrorist, thwarting the attack, and he was killed," the military said.
The suspect was identified by Paleostinian officials as Yasser Fuzi Shuweiki.
The suspect, armed with a knife, entered the contentious Beit HaShalom building in Hebron, near the Kiryat Arba settlement. A resident of the building, one of the few Jewish-owned structures inside the overwhelmingly Paleostinian city, saw and called Israeli security forces to the scene, according to reports from the scene. A video filmed at the scene showed the attacker lying on the ground in the entrance hall of the building with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the chest. The knife was seen on the ground several feet away from him.
Later on Tuesday, Israeli troops tossed in the slammer You have the right to remain silent... a Paleostinian woman who approached them outside Beit HaShalom after she was found in possession of a knife.
"A Paleostinian woman walked up to the military post in Hebron near the attempted stabbing attack this afternoon. She aroused the suspicion of IDF troops at the location. After a search of her body, the soldiers found a knife in her possession," the army said.
"The suspect was arrested and handed over to security forces for questioning."
On Monday night, unidentified button menshot up an Israeli vehicle in the northern West Bank.There were no casualties in the attack near the settlement of Rehelim, south of Nablus, but damage was caused to the vehicle. IDF soldiers were searching the area for the perpetrators.
Last week two Israeli soldiers were maimed, one of them seriously, in what the army said was a car-ramming attack northwest of Ramallah. Troops fired on the three occupants of the vehicle, killing two and wounding the third. Paleostinian residents of a nearby village denied it was a deliberate attack and said it was an accident. The Israeli military said the three young Paleostinian men had earlier thrown Molotov cocktails at a nearby highway.
[AnNahar] Violence in northwestern Syria has killed dozens over the past three weeks and displaced tens of thousands, raising concerns a truce reached six months ago between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... and Russia is in danger.
The violence in Idlib comes as the world is focused on eastern Syria, where U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters are on the verge of defeating the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in the last area they control.
Idlib has been in the hands of opposition forces for years, even as Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's military retook other rebel enclaves, one after the other.
The province is now home to some 3 million people, many of them displaced from other former opposition territory. Earlier this year, al-Qaeda-linked Death Eaters took over the province, squeezing out most other factions after festivities with Turkey-backed opposition fighters.
Three minute video with English subtitles at the link.
[Rudaw] Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US-led coalition are keeping up the pressure on the last ISIS holdouts in Baghouz, eastern Syria ‐ a tent camp just half a kilometre square.
Coalition jets pound ISIS positions from the side and the SDF are attacking them on three sides from the ground.
"Our forces have liberated this region. This is the place where civilians were staying. Our fighters went to check the area, which is 50 metres from here. There are some festivities behind us. Overall the distance between us and ISIS is less than 100 metres," Mustafa Bali, the head of SDF’s media office, explained as he escorted Rudaw to an area of the tent camp their forces now control.
ISIS snipers closely watch the routes leading to the camp. Smoke rises above the ragged tents and the steady crack of gunfire fills the air.
An estimated 2,500 people ‐ gunnies and their families ‐ remain in the camp, though setting a firm number is difficult since ISIS is using a network of tunnels and trenches dug on the shores of the Euphrates River.
"There are ISIS fighters in that house. They are hiding in the tunnels," said an SDF fighter, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
"It’s a street war now," said another SDF fighter. "ISIS fighters are some metres away from us. One of the imported muscle came close. I told him to surrender and he would live. But he didn’t surrender. I shot him, but missed."
ISIS released a new video on Tuesday in which they appeared defeated. Footage of the beleaguered tent camp is markedly different from the triumphant clips the jihadists published when they controlled swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria.
"Why are we being bombarded by airplanes? Why do all the heathen countries of the world gather to fight us? What is our sin? What is our crime?... It was that we wanted to implement Allah’s sharia [law]," a turban identified as Abou Abdulaadhim is seen saying.
He declared that even if they are "wiped out" it will be a "victory" because he will soon be in "paradise."
In the video, a mini bus with a mounted megaphone is seen driving through the camp as a turban urges people to ask forgiveness from God.
The SDF are trying to open a safe exit route so that any civilians who want to leave can do so.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday 38 Islamic State fighters had been confirmed killed in a U.S.-backed offensive against the jihadists' final enclave in eastern Syria, after the area was pounded by ferocious bombardment overnight.
Three SDF fighters had been killed and 10 wounded, Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF media office, said in a post on Twitter.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 people left Islamic State's last enclave in eastern Syria and surrendered on Tuesday, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said.
Those surrendering included both Islamic State fighters and their family members, said Mustafa Bali, head of the SDF's media office.
An audio recording purportedly from the Islamic State group is calling on supporters across the world to stage attacks in defense of die-hard militants besieged by U.S.-backed forces in their last foothold in a village in eastern Syria.
The brief, minute-and-a half recording, released by IS supporters on social media and reported by the SITE Intelligence Group late on Monday says men, women and children in the village of Baghouz are being subjected to a "holocaust."
In the audio, an unidentified IS militant calls on Muslim "brothers, in Europe and in the whole world" to "rise against the Crusaders and ... take revenge for your religion."
The recording's authenticity couldn't be independently verified. It comes as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters are making what's likely the final push to take IS-held Baghouz.
Kurdish-led forces said Tuesday more people were surrendering from the Islamic State group's last scrap of territory in Syria, after overnight air raids and shelling ravaged jihadist outposts.
Airstrikes and shelling have pummeled Baghouz for two nights in a row, killing scores of fighters and prompting hundreds of jihadists and their relatives to surrender.
"There was fierce fighting," Ali Cheir, an SDF unit commander, told AFP from a rudimentary outpost inside the village.
"The objective of our advance is to terrorize IS fighters so they surrender, and for the civilians to come out," said the 27-year-old fighter.
The frontline was quiet Tuesday morning, hours after the airstrikes and rocket attacks on Monday night engulfed the last IS pocket in flames.
The commander said the SDF had slowed its offensive after daybreak to allow for jihadists and their relatives to turn themselves in.
"There are people handing themselves over now and we have completely halted fire so that they can surrender," he said.
Another SDF official who asked not to be named said that his force and the coalition only target IS positions at night.
Coalition warplanes pounded the jihadist redoubt with 20 airstrikes, destroying armored vehicles and arms caches, SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said.
He said U.S.-backed forces clashed with jihadists on several fronts, killing nearly 40 IS fighters.
Beyond Baghouz, IS retains a presence in eastern Syria's vast Badia desert and sleeper cells in the northeast.
"[The] number of Daesh (IS) members [who have] surrendered to us since yesterday evening has risen to 3,000," Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Mustefa Bali said Tuesday.
Kurdish-led units are reportedly preparing a final assault on the last "Islamic State" holdout.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/13/2019 00:00 ||
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#5
"Why are we being bombarded by airplanes? Why do all the heathen countries of the world gather to fight us? What is our sin? What is our crime?... It was that we wanted to implement Allah’s sharia [law]," a turban identified as Abou Abdulaadhim is seen saying.
Maybe we just don't like assholes?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/13/2019 9:38 Comments ||
Top||
#6
All that head-chopping, slavery and mass executions kind of get folks 'wee-wee'd up' too, Frank.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/13/2019 10:49 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Hot Air] When we first learned back in January that peace talks with the Taliban were underway, I expressed a number of concerns. The Taliban are murderous, repressive thugs who can’t be trusted for much of anything. But at the same time, I was forced to admit that we were running out of options unless we are willing to concede that we’re going to be in Afghanistan forever, propping up a government that controls a decreasing amount of territory every year.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
