Posted on 12/11/2004 3:37:14 AM PST by anonymoussierra
The US military in Afghanistan says it has begun a new operation against Taleban and al-Qaeda militants, ahead of elections planned for next year. A US army spokesman said the offensive, known as Operation Lightning Freedom, began after last Tuesday's inauguration of President Hamid Karzai.
All 18,000 troops in the US-led force would be involved, he said.
Analysts say the offensive also aims to persuade Taleban militants to accept a recent US amnesty offer and disarm.
Operations and aid
The US military says the aim of the operation is to boost security ahead of parliamentary elections planned for the spring - although correspondents say few believe they can happen before next summer.
The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul says it is not clear whether the campaign will mean any real change in tactics by US forces in the eastern and southern provinces where the Taleban and other militants are concentrated.
In a briefing, the US spokesman said they would continue to mix combat operations with aid to remote communities - an approach they have followed for the past year US commanders say the amnesty initiative is starting to work, although they have not provided evidence, our correspondent notes.
In the long run they hope it will bring the Taleban-led insurgency in Afghanistan to an end, allowing them to withdraw troops to help out in Iraq, our correspondent adds.
The new operation follows Operation Lightning Resolve, a security operation to protect October's presidential election.
The Taleban were ousted in late 2001 when US forces invaded Afghanistan following the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.
The Taleban had given sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden and members of his al-Qaeda network, who are accused of carrying out the attacks.
Thread link sent to my son in A-Stan. Of course, I'm sure he is already fully aware.
Thank you photgraphs not all is Afganistan. Thank be strong G-D Help your Son America friend!
Thank you. He doesn't get much computer time when he is back at base. I hope he has time to load the pics.
thanks again.
Karzai is expected to announce a major military action against Opium growing & processing in the coming days. It will be a joint UK, USA & Afghan offensive. Opium poppy growth and heroin production are at record levels now.
This will also cut the funding base from much crime and terrorism.
Thank you
Bless ya Annymou...you post good stuff.
Thank you
US general sees Taliban split over ending struggle:
KABUL, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's radical Islamic group, the Taliban, has been thrown into turmoil over an offer of reconciliation from President Hamid Karzai, the commander of U.S.-led forces in the country said on Thursday.
Lieutenant General David Barno told Reuters in an interview that Taliban members had been devastated by their failure to scare off Afghans from voting in the country's first democratic election on Oct. 9, and now feared being left out of its future.
"I think they are at an internal crossroads and they are having great difficultly deciding what their future should be," Barno said in his rug-strewn office in the U.S. military camp in Kabul.
"We see indications that there are arguments even among the leadership about whether it's time to accept reconciliation with the Afghan government."
Karzai, inaugurated as Afghanistan's first democratically-elected president on Tuesday after his election win, has repeatedly said fighters who laid down their arms would be accepted back into the mainstream.
Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a deputy of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, told Reuters by satellite telephone that the Taliban militia would never surrender.
"We will continue this war till the freedom of our country. America will also suffer a defeat like Russia," Akhund said, referring to the Soviet Union's retreat from Afghanistan in 1989. The Taliban were in power when U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and ousted the regime for harbouring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, wanted for the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.
Washington then installed Karzai as an interim leader and he was later endorsed by a tribal council.
"There's a huge opportunity here to take this organisation, as an organisation, off the table and bring the majority of its elements back in," said Barno, referring to the Taliban.
He said his soldiers in the field, either in combat units or in reconstruction teams, had been approached by intermediaries asking how their relatives could quit the Taliban and return to normal life.
The Marine general, who first saw service in Vietnam, also noted increasing examples of militants being paid to fight, in a development that appeared at odds with the usual images of a mujahid, a Muslim holy warrior.
"In a different kind of guerrilla war, you might see ideology motivating your fighters or some other type of commitment, but here we're seeing money being a significant factor. Which is very interesting to us.
"To me, it reflects that there is no passion, no commitment, no nationalistic streak that this thing is being driven by."
Meanwhile, he said the 18,000-strong force he commands, together with the newly formed, U.S.-trained Afghan National Army, had launched "Operation Lightning Freedom" to consolidate the successes of the past months against insurgents and safeguard parliamentary polls due in the second quarter of 2005.
"The goal is to keep the pressure on the terrorist forces and not let them have the opportunity to regroup in the wintertime."
He said he did not foresee any reduction in U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan "for the next year or so".
For all the energy dedicated to protecting the presidential and parliamentary polls, Barno insisted there was no let up in the hunt for bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar.
But Barno wouldn't even hazard a guess where they were hiding.
"I wouldn't want to speculate where they could be. I mean, clearly, if you don't know where they are, there are a number of different options out there."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP40093.htm
:}}}}}} Be strong America good friend!
Dzieki Thank you
Good America friend write again I write again 1600. Thank you Be strong America good friend Be strong America good country!
America's mission here [Afghanistan] is far from over and as [Vice President Cheney] told NBC Tuesday, there are no guarantees of quick success.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6672408/
"Good America friend write again I write again 1600. Thank you Be strong America good friend Be strong America good country!"
Thank you :)
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