[KhaamaPress] UK’s secretary of defense Ben Wallace said that 100 British troops will stay in Afghanistan along with the 650 US troops to protect UK’s Kabul-based embassy.
Wallace announces the remarks only days after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies.... officially ended his military mission in Afghanistan, in a speech in the British parliament.
Prior to that, United States had said that its troops will stay in Afghanistan until the security of the Kabul international airport is handed over to the Ottoman Turkish Forces.
Ben Wallace, UK’s defense minister on his visit to the US, Pentagon, with his counterpart said that both countries were on the same track to leave Afghanistan by the end of August.
Wallace has also thanked United States forces for what they have done in Afghanistan in the past 20 years.
Ben Wallace and Llyod Austin met only hours after a milestone took place in the drawdown process of the US from Afghanistan. In Kabul RS’s longest-serving commander, General Scott Miller stepped down and devolved his role to General Frank McKenzie.
As negotiations over handing Kabul’s airport security to Ottoman Turkish is going smooth between the US and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... has been opposing the move and reiterates that Turkey as a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... member state should not have a military presence in Afghanistan.
[KhaamaPress] As the conflict between the Taliban ...Arabic for students... and Afghan government Force’s members rages in southern Kandahar province, the misery has left over five thousand families homeless who have left their homes and properties and relocated to Kandahar city.
The families now left behind all they had in districts and believe to be looted.
Provincial sources in Kandahar province say that the Taliban fighters have been waging war now in PD7 of Kandahar province and got even closer to the central prison of the province.
The Taliban turbans now believed to be controlling Arghistan, Khurabak, Khakriz, Maiwand, Panjwaee, Maroof, Ghorak, and Shawalikot districts of Kandahar province.
Provincial officials in Kandahar province on the other hand say that reinforcement has been sent and the security situation of the province will soon be brought under ANDSF’s control.
Thousands of people in Kandahar province displace at a time when on the parallel move thousands of households leave their homes and property in all war-hit provinces across the country.
Local residents in southeastern Paktia province say that in some districts, fallen to the Taliban, the local residents have not been allowed to relocate to safe areas or to Kabul.
#2
I guess about 500 Turkish troops are there. I think all near the Hamid Karzai international airport which is about 25 miles south of Bagram Airfield, the military airport.
Probably Turkey has several contingent infantry units, maybe a designated division assigned to back up.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
07/14/2021 21:02 Comments ||
Top||
[ToloNews] As most of the northern provinces are witnessing heavy festivities between government forces and the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , President Ghani said during a visit to Balkh province that "the Taliban’s backbone will be broken" and all areas captured by the group will be retaken soon.
President Ghani visited Balkh province on Tuesday to review the northern provinces' security situation and said that the security situation across the country will improve significantly in the next three months.
President Ghani's trip to Balkh comes as heavy festivities are underway between government forces and Taliban in most of the northern provinces, including Balkh.
During the trip President Ghani met with a number of civil society activists, women's rights activists, and journalists, and stressed the need for national cohesion and unity in the country.
"The Afghan government's plan to stabilize the whole situation is still in effect. The president had a meeting with the youth, women, Ulema, and teachers moments ago, and the details we have about it--about economic and security issues--will be shared soon," said Fazel Mahmoud Fazli, head of the Administrative Office of the President.
In the last month the capitals of 9 districts of Balkh province fell to the Taliban and the Taliban got closer to the gates of Mazar-e-Sharif, the center of Balkh.
Following the escalation of Taliban attacks in Balkh, residents of the province took up arms to support the defense and security forces in fighting against the Talibs.
Mohammad Farhad Azimi, the governor of Balkh, said: "A delegation from the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Interior, the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... and also from the Security Council accompany him on this trip."
He added: "They will discuss and exchange views on a better security plan for the protection of Hairatan Crossing and other lost districts as well."
With the president's visit to Balkh, the city of Mazar-e-Sharif became semi-closed, and the roads leading to Balkh province were blocked. Residents of Mazar-e-Sharif criticized the road closures, saying they had faced many problems.
Abdul Qayyum, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif, said: "They are welcome but roads in Mazar-e-Sharif city and in the rest of the province are closed to traffic and people. Instead of giving us bread and water, they took it from us."
Khairullah, one of the drivers in Mazar-e-Sharif, said that if he met the president he would say to him: "You are the president, will you find a piece of bread for us or you would take the bread from us, the bread that costs us the callouses on our hands?"
President Ghani assured the people of Afghanistan that the security situation in the country will improve within the next three months.
I suspect he's completely right. Journalists have dusted off their Saigon 1975 template and are just filling in the blanks. Heck, maybe the Taliban is operating based on the Saigon 1975 template based on a hope and a prayer. What they're missing is that they're not equipped like North Vietnam was in 1975. My guess is that in 3 *years*, journos will be reporting the same kinds of things they're reporting today. Could direct Pakistani intervention, with uniformed Pakistani army units jumping in, tip the scales? Sure. Heck, Biden might even try to cover it up. But the idea that these Taliban raids constitute control - I'm skeptical.
Remember that attack on the Florida disco that killed 50? All it took was one man. If there were tens of thousands of Taliban in Florida, they could have killed hundreds of thousands of people. For weeks, they could probably credibly say they hold Florida, as the authorities try to take back all the places where they're holed up without killing all the civilians taken hostage. It's Taliban bluster - an ancient technique hoping to stampede their adversaries into surrendering. I think they'll have a tough time winning. We've just pumped too much equipment into Afghanistan - and all the provincial leaders are battle-tested mujahideen who have engaged in large-scale corruption precisely for this situation - so they don't have to rely on a balky central government for supplies when the Taliban comes calling. Far better to have your own private army (aka militia) than to rely on the government's.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/14/2021 21:08 Comments ||
Top||
#4
^ Hope you're right, Robert
I don't think they're fighting for honor. They're fighting for their lives. The quick way to end the Taliban would have been to slaughter the Pashtuns and push them into Pakistan. The problem is what happens when we leave and the Pakistanis send the Pashtuns back over the border, this time with Pakistani regulars backing them up. Pakistan has 200m people. Afghanistan has 40m. Anyhow, Strategypage suggests that the Taliban are staging what amounts to a Mazar-e-Sharif-style pogrom:
So far this year civilian deaths are up 40 percent compared to 2020. Most of the increase comes from the Taliban policy of killing non-Pushtun civilians while offering Pushtun civilians the option of surrendering without violence. This is the custom in Afghanistan and characterized the unfinished civil war that ended in 2001 when the Americans intervened on the side of the largely non-Pushtun Northern Alliance. The Taliban are confident it will be different this time, because they hmore drug money and access to Pakistan for illegal import items and access to the outside world.
I respect Strategypage, but disagree that Taliban drug money can match Uncle Sam's $400m a month. Not to mention the huge amounts of cached equipment and ammo that are the fruits of 20 years of salting away by each of the provincial warlords. We talk about corruption like it's this great evil.
In Afghanistan, if you're not corrupt, you're the patsy. When push comes to shove, you'll be pushed off the podium because you have no army of your own and no weaponry. Don't think of these people as citizens in a nation state where the government gives everyone a fair shake.
Think of these warlords as barons under King John. When he comes for you, you'd better have a big enough army to kick his ass back to where he came from, because he will take everything you own unless you stop him.
Your trip'n man...what ever your on I want some...you got anymore to share...your wife is beautiful...she got a sister...Like dude this is the 21st Century...there is no government/military autonomy..the world is being run by committees of the rich...and its all good...$ is just flow'n in...no need to push the toons anywhere...for what...and upset their military industrial complex ?
[SHAFAQ] An official security source in Saladin reported today that 16 employees and officials of various degrees had been arrested in the governorate on charges of forgery.
The source told Shafaq News Agency, "A force from Baghdad that is likely belonging to Major General Ahmed Abu Ragheef's anti-corruption committee, in cooperation with the National Security Agency, and based on judicial arrest warrants, arrested 16 employees, including officials in several departments in Saladin on charges of corruption and forgery."
The source confirmed that the arrests were mostly in the Real Estate Registration Directorate in Saladin and several other departments, noting that the detainees were subject to security investigations.
It is noteworthy that Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi formed an anti-corruption committee headed by Major General Ahmed Abu Ragheef, and arrested several officials and employees in different governorates on charges of corruption, fraud, and waste of public money.
[SHAFAQ] The head of the Kurdistan Islamic Group bloc in the Iraqi parliament, Salim Hamza, hinted at concerns of an "open war" between the U.S. and Iraqi armed factions.
Hamza told Shafaq News Agency, "the military escalation between the armed factions and the Americans will have an impact on the security situation in Iraq in general, and this effect will certainly have an impact on the issue of holding early parliamentary elections on time."
"The parliamentary elections require calm and security stability. This military escalation between the factions and the Americans creates many security problems. There is political and popular fear of the 'open war' between the factions and the Americans because of its many negative effects on the political and electoral situation."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2021 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
#2
Oh goody, another new war. Just what we need. After Afghanistan, they're used to being at war all the time and are going to keep trying to start new ones. The idea of being at peace is dead as Dillinger.
[IsraelTimes] Move comes amid international pressure to increase assistance to the Strip, follows meeting between Israeli, Egyptian foreign ministers; Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i envoy reaches Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... on Sunday night.
#1
Is the assistance due to the calm or to international pressure? I expect we'll find out soon, once the calm goes away (the international pressure won't.)
[IsraelTimes] Isaac Herzog and Ottoman Turkish president pledge to maintain contact ’and ongoing dialogue’ despite differences, after years of strained ties.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/14/2021 00:45 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
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.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...Arabic for 
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
-www.kaifineart.com-1.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
[IsraelTimes] Move comes amid international pressure to increase assistance to the Strip, follows meeting between Israeli, Egyptian foreign ministers; 
