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 sharkat rated 4 months ago -
Fears of big battle as Taliban fighters dig in
The Taliban dug into defensive positions in a cluster of villages near Kandahar yesterday in apparent preparation for a battle on the doorstep of Afghanistan's second city.
The brazen gambit came days after the Taliban smashed into Kand...
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2 Reviews
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- AngelaHayden rated 4 months ago
- hat tip to sharkat
ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan -- (AP) -- Taliban fighters destroyed bridges and planted mines after overrunning villages outside southern Afghanistan's largest city, Afghan officials and witnesses said. Hundreds of farm families fled while the Afghan army rushed in troops.
Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that between 300 and 400 militants -- many of them foreigners -- took over the Arghandab region 10 miles northwest of Kandahar. The offensive Monday came three days after a Taliban attack on Kandahar's prison that freed 400 insurgents.
- sharkat rated 4 months ago
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Fears of big battle as Taliban fighters dig in
The Taliban dug into defensive positions in a cluster of villages near Kandahar yesterday in apparent preparation for a battle on the doorstep of Afghanistan's second city.
The brazen gambit came days after the Taliban smashed into Kandahar's main prison, freeing 400 militants, and deepening the sense of crisis in the country.
Local elders said fighters had flooded into Arghandab, a rural sprawl of farmhouses and vineyards that stretches north-west of Kandahar city. "They have blown up several bridges and are planting mines everywhere," Muhammad Usman, a taxi driver who had evacuated a family, told reporters in Kandahar.
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Is the Taliban Making a Comeback?
By Aryn Baker / Kabul
Hundreds of Taliban insurgents swarmed through a key district just outside the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday, sending residents fleeing in anticipation of retaliation by NATO troops. This latest Taliban assault in the Argandab district caps several weeks of increased fighting in the country's southern districts along the border with Pakistan, followed by a spectacular raid on a Kandahar prison, in which some 400 Taliban fighters were freed, according to officials. "My men have seen a few of the escaped Taliban prisoners among the fighters in Argandab," says district chief Ghulam Farouq.
Argandab, just 10 miles southeast of Kandahar, is famous for its lush vineyards and pomegranate orchards. It is also a key symbol for the insurgency. Soviet troops that took the rest of Afghanistan when they invaded in 1979 were never able to conquer the district. Its shady groves, raisin-drying barns and deep irrigation canals provide excellent cover for fighters. Kandahar residents worry that the militants could use it as a base for an attack on the city itself, in an attempt to regain their former power base. "Argandab is a strategic district, which the Taliban can use to threaten Kandahar," says former police chief Khan Mohammad. The Taliban have taken every village in the area except for the main town of Argandab, Mohammad says, and there are 40 to 50 Taliban fighters in each village. He worries the prison raid was a precursor to an attack on Argandab itself. "The Taliban have gained a lot of power with those who have been freed from the prison," he says.
Officials of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO's military arm in Afghanistan, are skeptical about reports of such high numbers of Taliban forces fighting together, but they say they are ready to respond to any threat. "In the wake of the jailbreak, we obviously have a different and more difficult security situation in Kandahar," says ISAF spokesman Mark Laity.
A massing of Taliban fighters in Argandab is a departure from the militant tactics that have evolved over the past two years. In 2006 NATO forces soundly defeated a Taliban force in nearby Panjwai and declared the movement all but dead. An increase in suicide bombings and the utilization of improvised explosive devices to attack coalition forces since then has been interpreted as signs of weakness and desperation. Now it is starting to look like a recuperation strategy.
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Uh, it has been clear to sober observers for quite some time that the Taliban has been making a comeback in Afghanistan, but SHARKAT still congratulates Time for this realization of the reality there. Better late than never.
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