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Afghanistan
Afghans flee town as Taliban dig in for NATO raid
2007-02-07
So they're digging in? Prediction: Pain...
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - More than 1,000 villagers have fled a southern Afghan town as Taliban fighters dig in to repel NATO efforts to drive them out, residents and officials said on Wednesday. Helmand provincial governor Haji Assadullah Wafa told Reuters by phone a military operation would soon be launched to recapture Musa Qala, which the Taliban over-ran last week.

British-led NATO forces had struck a deal with tribal elders after months of heavy fighting to withdraw from the town if the Taliban were also kept out. "The Taliban are only in the town to create problems for the people," he said. "They do not have the ability to seize an area and maintain their control over it." It is not uncommon for the Taliban to seize a town or district center, but they do not hold them for long.
Wow. Sounds like a real quagmire.
A large number of Taliban fighters had reinforced the town with heavy weapons, a resident told Reuters by phone, and NATO spy planes could be heard overhead.
A large number of Taliban fighters had reinforced the town with heavy weapons, a resident told Reuters by phone, and NATO spy planes could be heard overhead.
Bring in all the heavy stuff you got. Our toys are bigger and better.
The Taliban have accused foreign troops of violating the truce with an air strike that killed the brother of local Taliban leader Mullah Ghafour. NATO commanders and villager elders say that strike was outside the area covered by the truce. Ghafour was himself killed in an air strike on Sunday.
He got any other brothers?
Cousins? Nephews? Uncles-thrice-removed? We'd like to, er, 'meet' them all. Briefly.
Separately, U.S.-led forces said they arrested two suspected al Qaeda members on Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. Both were Afghans, the force said in a statement, but it did not identify them. "The operation was conducted based on information provided about an al Qaeda member known to pass correspondence for al Qaeda senior leaders," the force said. It did not elaborate.

Also on Wednesday, a roadside bomb killed two Afghan guards working for a U.S. security company in the southern province of Kandahar, provincial officials said. Six guards were wounded. Three police officers were killed while defusing a mine planted by the Taliban on a road in the west of the country on Tuesday night, police said.

After the bloodiest year since the Taliban was ousted in 2001, NATO and the insurgents are gearing up for a major offensive when the snow melts in the spring. The new commander of NATO's 33,000-strong International Security Assistance Force, U.S. General Dan McNeill is expected to take a more aggressive approach than his British predecessor, General David Richards, after taking over on Sunday.

NATO's top operational commander wants more troops to help crush the Taliban, but faces widespread reluctance among allies to come forward, alliance officials said in Brussels on Tuesday. U.S. General Bantz Craddock will present a request for 3- extra battalions -- the equivalent of more than 2,000 troops -- at a meeting of national defense ministers in Seville on Thursday and Friday, they said.
Posted by:tu3031

#6  You forgot, "And, er...Get off my lawn you damn kids!"
Posted by: Anonymoose   2007-02-07 17:12  

#5  Mike, I didn't really forget it, I just didn't include it, 'cause I thought I'd be showing my age, which I keep forgetting.
Posted by: wxjames   2007-02-07 14:56  

#4  wxjames: -

You forgot, 'Burma Shave'.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2007-02-07 14:01  

#3  I hope they surround this place
before they attack,
so no one escapes,
galumphing away snicker snack.
Posted by: wxjames   2007-02-07 12:31  

#2  One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2007-02-07 10:07  

#1  3 extra battalions???

Open up the wallet. Hand each vilage family a check for $10,000. Call in the Buff's and start dropping 2000 lb'ers on the village until it is nothing but a smoking hole in he ground. Sheesh, what in the heck are the planners thinking? This is really easy.
Posted by: anymouse   2007-02-07 09:37  

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