Posted on 06/14/2006 12:31:19 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Huge anti-Taliban operation under way in Afghanistan
6 minutes ago
Coalition and Afghan forces are conducting their biggest counterinsurgency operation since the Taliban regime fell in late 2001 and are preparing to move into new insurgent strongholds, the coalition announced.
The campaign, named Operation Mountain Thrust, was launched in southern Afghanistan in mid-May, coalition spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fitzpatrick told AFP. Information about the campaign had been under wraps.
Involving 11,000 coalition troops -- including from Britain, Canada and the United States -- as well as Afghan soldiers, it is the biggest operation against the Taliban since the movement's government was toppled in late 2001.
"We have been conducting Operation Mountain Thrust since mid-May, disrupting the Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, specifically their leadership," Fitzpatrick said on Wednesday.
"We are moving to the next phase of the operation in the northern provinces of southern Afghanistan," he said.
There was no specific date, he said. "There is no grand landing like Normandy Beach. This is part of a continuing campaign."
The operation was timed to coincide with the looming transfer of command in southern Afghanistan from the US-led coalition to NATO's International Security Assistance Force, he said.
It was intended to "set the conditions" for the transfer due in late July or early August, he said.
There was a dramatic upsurge in insurgency-linked violence in southern Afghanistan in mid-May with Taliban fighters taking on the security forces in some of their biggest battles in years.
The security forces in turn launched major strikes. About 400 people, most of the insurgents, were killed in a roughly two-week stretch.
So lets not be hasty in knocking them this morning.
They have been kicking butt in Afghanistan since this thing started.
I did miss that fact, so I apologize for my meanness.
A 19 year-old friend-of-a-friend lost his arm, was seriously wounded by shrapnel, and was badly burned in Afghanistan yesterday. So sad. The price of freedom can be - and is - very high...
Lord, please watch over, bless and protect our troops, and inspire those who lead them.
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
Oh, that just rocks. Good luck on that, and be sure to put me on the ping list for your FReep report.
WTG!
Good post. Perhaps a lot of fresh faces moving in from Iran over a period of time are going to find themselves popping up daisies over the next few months.
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I don't believe it's coincidental Mogadishu was claimed by the islamites a few weeks ago. How do you spell "run like a little girlie!"?
Keep'em dying boys!
06 will turn out to be the worst year on the Taliban and al-Qeada elements in Stan since their removal in late 01 - (and it is only going to get worse over the next several months).
Not a good day to be a terrorist?
no future there.
And that's why we (the civilized world) will win.
How do you spell "run like a little girlie!"?
John Kerry.
Strange innit, how much more our military on the ground knows than aging veteran politicians who're sagging in the polls so badly that they switch sides?
O'Reilly (the creep) was complaining this morning - during an interview with another talking head - that progress won't have been made in Iraq until reporters can go across the street for a cup of coffee. He's never supported going back to Iraq, and he knows no more about what is happening there or the presiden't reasons for going than the idiot interviewing him. The media is cranking up another notch.
Thank you to our troops overseas and to all of our allies who are there to stand with us. God speed.
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