tagged w/ Helmand
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The leaders of the largest tribe in a Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province have pledged to halt insurgent attacks and expel foreign fighters from one of the most violent spots in the country, the senior U.S. Marine general in Afghanistan said Monday..
http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/ap/International/75244The leaders of the largest tribe in a Taliban stronghold in southern Helmand province... more
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U.S. troops in Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, were busy training Afghan police how to fire machineguns on Monday (April 26).
A centrepiece of U.S. President Barack Obama's Afghanistan strategy is the training of Afghan security forces in order to facilitate the eventual withdrawal of NATO forces.
Obama has said a U.S. troop withdrawal could begin from the middle of 2011, raising alarm bells among some in the Afghan political and military leadership, who fear being abandoned.
"The purpose of training is that we want them... we have them lead all the missions. We want them to be able to shoot effectively and kill the enemy that attack," Company Commander Sergeant First Class Jeremy Ellis said.
Success depends on building capable and loyal Afghan forces, a difficult feat especially in the south, where many Afghan recruits quit due to poor pay and dangerous conditions.
"There are lots of Taliban and drug smugglers in this area, they repeatedly attack our checkpoints, but we are using tactics that we have learned from these training sessions, we target the enemies and defeat them," said Abdul Sattar Noorzai, commander of police quick reaction forces of Nahr-e-Saraj in Lashkar Gah.
Obama announced last December he would be sending an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan to try and turn the tide in the eight-year-war. Apart from combat troops, thousands of army trainers and enablers such as air crew will also be arriving in the country.U.S. troops in Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, were busy... more
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Four suspected Taliban insurgents ambushed U.S. Marines from the 36 battalion Lima Company on April 8 as the soldiers were heading back from a patrol near a village near Marjah in Helmand province. There was no causality among the Marines.
Marjah, a desert area of fertile farming land irrigated by canals in Helmand's opium-growing heartland, was billed as the last big Taliban stronghold in the country's most violent province. Thousands of U.S. Marines flooded into the district in February, joined by about 1,500 Afghan troops, while thousands of British troops conducted assaults to seize areas on its outskirts.Four suspected Taliban insurgents ambushed U.S. Marines from the 36 battalion Lima... more
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Rights groups say people living on the front line of a major US-led offensive against Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan are trapped in their homes with little access to food and health care and that thousands more who fled the area before the fighting began are receiving little help in harsh winter conditions.Rights groups say people living on the front line of a major US-led offensive against... more
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As the US-led military campaign escalates in Afghanistan, so too have the number of innocent civilians killed as a consequence of Operation Moshtarak. An airstrike in a remote part of Oruzgan province capped a bloody week for Afghan civilians that has seen some 60 innocent people killed by NATO weapons.As the US-led military campaign escalates in Afghanistan, so too have the number of... more
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US forces have detained a senior police officer in Afghanistan for alleged corruption and links to insurgents. A statement by the US military said Atahullah Wahaab, deputy police chief in Kapisa province, facilitated the storage, distribution and installation of improvised explosive devices on roads in his region.US forces have detained a senior police officer in Afghanistan for alleged corruption... more
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Ten of thousands of Afghan civilians are abandoning an area of central Helmland where US and British soldiers are have just launched one of the biggest operations of the year. However, most of the area's population, estimated at up to 100,000, remain.Ten of thousands of Afghan civilians are abandoning an area of central Helmland where... more
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Marines are trying to make good on President Obama's promise to "reverse Taliban momentum" in southern Afghanistan, launching with the first major offensive since the president spoke about his Afghanistan plans Tuesday night.
U.S. forces attack Taliban insurgents in Helmand Province.In the early morning hours, arriving by helicopter and V22 Osprey aircraft, approximately 300 Marines from Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and the Marine recon unit Task Force Raider, dropped into a strategically important area in northern Helmand Province.
This is the first time the Osprey tilt-wing aircraft have been used in an offensive in Afghanistan.
The commander of the operation dubbed "Cobra's Anger," Lt. Col. Martin Wetterauer, said two Marines units dropped into two areas at 3 a.m. on Friday morning. The focus of the operation is to "cut off enemy supply and communications lines to the north."
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So far, Wetterauer said, three insurgents have been killed after he said they were caught placing bombs in a road.
The Marine units dropped into two areas -- one just north of the once-bustling city of Now Zad and the small town further north called Kenjake Sofla. Both are places where Marines believe several Taliban insurgents operate.
Initially, the Marines have faced little opposition, Wetterauer said.
For the last four years, Marines and British forces have battled the Taliban in the area.
Because of the fighting, Now Zad, the second-largest city in Helmand Province, which once had a population of 30,000, has been reduced to a ghost town. Only members of the Taliban and their sympathizers remain.
In building defenses against the Marines, Taliban fighters have planted thousands of homemade bombs and dug in positions throughout the valley at the foot of the craggy Tangee Mountains.
Homemade bombs, or improvised explosive devices, may be the gravest threat Marines face in the area. The bombs, coming in just about every size and shape, are used to create minefields, a defense against Marines and booby traps throughout the city.Marines are trying to make good on President Obama's promise to "reverse... more
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Almost every day in the news we hear of the Army calling for more troops, more equipment, which continues to contradict the calls to bring the troops home.
How are we going to solve this mess when one officer wants to come home and another wants more soldiers?
Is this mess helping to prolong the Wars and continuing to bump up the sky high profits for the corporations over there?Almost every day in the news we hear of the Army calling for more troops, more... more
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After four soldiers were killed in Afghanistan this week, the monthly total raised to 30 US deaths, surpassing all previous moths since the US invasion in 2001. This is not unexpected given the increase in the number of US troops in the country and the massive push of Marines into the Helmand Province, but it is still a sobering milestone.
How are things going in Afghanistan? What's your opinion?After four soldiers were killed in Afghanistan this week, the monthly total raised to... more
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From WaPo:
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan, July 2 -- Thousands of U.S. Marines descended upon the volatile Helmand River valley in helicopters and armored convoys early Thursday morning, mounting an operation that represents the first large-scale test of the U.S. military's new counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
The operation will involve about 4,000 troops from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which was dispatched to Afghanistan earlier this year by President Obama to combat a growing Taliban insurgency in Helmand and other southern provinces. The Marines, along with an Army brigade that is scheduled to arrive later this summer, plan to push into pockets of the country where NATO forces have not had a presence. In many of those areas, the Taliban have evicted local police and government officials, and taken power.....From WaPo:
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan, July 2 -- Thousands of U.S. Marines... more
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