Are we losing control of Afghanistan to Taliban rebels

There obviously hasn't been a great deal of focus on the problems that are becoming increasingly intense in Afghanistan. Thankfully a heavy burden can be placed on NATO, we need their help over there more than ever. Ninety dead in one week---is the kind of statistic that will cause a massive revolt against US and NATO troops stationed there.

Ten Policemen Killed in Worsening Afghan Violence
By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban guerrillas have killed 10 policemen, including a provincial police chief, taking the death toll to more than 90 in one of Afghanistan's bloodiest weeks since U.S.-led forces overthrew their strict Islamic regime in 2001.

Abdul Khaliq, police chief of Logar province, and several other senior police officers from the province south of Kabul were among those killed in an ambush on Monday, Logar's military commander Fazlullah Mojadidi told Reuters.

He said the police chief had been returning from a funeral for two family members of a police officer who were killed in a rocket attack blamed on the Taliban. "They were in their cars when the incident happened," Mojadidi said. "There is no doubt that the Taliban were behind it."

News of the attack came after police said two Afghans working for British aid agency Save the Children Fund were wounded in a Taliban attack west of the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif on Sunday, the second such incident there in two weeks. And early on Tuesday a group of about 20 armed men raided a base of an Afghan mine clearance agency 22 miles southwest of Kabul, beat up some of its staff and stole an ambulance which they later set fire to.

Patrick Fruchet, external relations officer for the Mine Action Center, told Reuters it was unclear who was responsible.

The violence has increased doubts about the ability of the U.S.-backed government to hold elections on schedule next June.

The bloodshed comes just after NATO took command of 5,000 foreign peacekeepers in Kabul on August 11 and prompted fresh calls for the force's role to be extended into the provinces, where a 12,500-strong U.S.-led coalition has been hunting remnants of the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies.

It also comes ahead of a visit to Kabul on Thursday by Mian Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, foreign minister of Pakistan. Pakistan is an ally in the U.S.-led "war on terror" but Afghan officials say Islamabad has been allowing an increasingly bold Taliban movement to regroup from its territory.


SCARE IN KANDAHAR
In a scare in the volatile southern city of Kandahar, two soldiers were injured, one seriously, in an explosion while shifting munitions at the house of Ahmad Wali Karzai, brother of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai. But a local government spokesman said the incident was an accident, and the president's brother was not hurt.

Bases of the U.S.-led coalition came under attack again on Monday and Tuesday, but no casualties were reported. Coalition bases have come under frequent rocket attack since the Taliban fell but the missiles generally miss their targets and have proven more of a nuisance than a threat.

However, at least 65 people were killed last Tuesday and Wednesday in incidents nationwide, including a bomb on a bus, a factional clash, fighting between government and Taliban guerrillas in the southeast and an ambush on a local aid group. More than a dozen more soldiers and guerrillas were reported killed in clashes in the southeast at the weekend.

Last week, a government official called for a tripling of the size of the NATO-led international peacekeeping force and U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi also repeated a call for the Security Council to expand peacekeeping from the capital.

But Western diplomats in Kabul doubt the proposal is feasible, involving as it would the deployment of thousands more troops into a risky environment as well as high costs.

They instead advocate the coalition's deployment of more civilian-military Provincial Reconstruction Teams, but critics say such teams, some 60-70 strong, will be too weak to make a significant difference to worsening security.

 

I know its important to catch big name fugitives, but that is one area i'm not going to lay on Bush and Co. (its about the only thing). I always think of Eric Rudolph and how hard it was to catch him in the US, I think he ended up basically giving himself up. Osama and Saddam may very well never be caught and I can understand how impossible it must be to find them especially Osama in those remote mts.

That being said 90 deaths in a week is pretty scary, if we don't get this under control soon we could find ourselves in the same situation as the Soviets. The Afghan rebels had weapons supplied by the US to defeat the Soviets---if the Taliban start receiving some better equipment from China or N. Korea it could change things in a hurry. Remember the Soviets were in complete control of Afghanistan until the Stinger missile made its appearance.

 

The most valuable resource in Afghanistan is the drug trade namely opium. Whoever controls the Heroin has the money and the political clout to dominate a large regions of the country. As for controlling the borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan this will never happen. It is physically impossible for anyone to control an area so remote as the Hindu Kush mountain range. The US can't come close to controlling our border with Mexico-- the government of Pakistan doesn't have the slightest chance of removing Al Qaeda and Taliban factions from its border regions. Imagine the Rocky Mountains running the length of our border with Mexico now add 10,000 more feet to the overall height of the mountains. How can anyone stop a group entrenched in an area like that? The hit and run attacks we are seeing will continue from now until we leave that region of the world.

 

The clashes in Zabul extend the worst wave of violence in Afghanistan since the Taliban was ousted from power by U.S. air attacks supported by special forces and Afghan ground troops.

Much of the bloodshed has been blamed on the militia, which has declared a "jihad," or holy war on foreign troops, aid organizations and their supporters.

"Fighting has escalated today," Hotak told Reuters from Zabul. "The bombardment has intensified, so has the shelling, but the Taliban are out there and bitterly resisting."

Taliban Offer Resistance; Two U.S. Soldiers Killed
By Sayed Salahuddin and Saeed Ali Achakzai

KABUL/SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters put up stiff resistance on Sunday as Afghan and U.S. forces backed by artillery, jet fighters and attack helicopters continued to hunt hundreds of militants, an official said.

Khalil Hotak, intelligence chief in the southern province of Zabul where the battle entered its seventh day, said 14 Taliban guerrillas were killed on Saturday, taking the ousted Islamic militia's reported losses since Monday to more than 90.

The U.S. military has confirmed 33 Taliban deaths during the first three days of fighting, which has involved the largest concentration of fighters from the hard-line regime since the movement was driven from power late in 2001. In a separate clash, two U.S. soldiers were killed near their base at Shkin, in the eastern province of Paktika a few miles from the Pakistani border. A third soldier who was wounded was in a stable condition and awaiting evacuation.

A U.S. combat patrol came under fire early on Sunday, and four attackers were killed in the ensuing battle, a U.S. military statement said.

It did not say who the suspected assailants were, but recent attacks on Afghan government forces in Paktika have been blamed on Taliban guerrillas crossing from Pakistan.

In Zabul, Hotak said an unknown number of Taliban were stationed in the Kohi Sero area, the Taliban's main stronghold and the target of bombing by U.S. and allied fighters and heavy artillery fire from infantry forces.

"Fighting has escalated today," Hotak told Reuters from Zabul. "The bombardment has intensified, so has the shelling, but the Taliban are out there and bitterly resisting."


MAJOR OPERATION
Hundreds of Afghan troops backed by several dozen U.S.-led special operations soldiers had overrun Taliban hideouts in various parts of Dai Chopan district since the start of the operation, Hotak added.

The clashes involve up to 1,000 Afghan troops and a similar number of Taliban guerrillas.

Zabul's governor Hafizullah told Reuters late on Saturday six Afghan soldiers died during the whole operation and four injured. Two soldiers from U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan have been injured during hostilities in Zabul and one died of wounds sustained in an accident there.

The clashes in Zabul extend the worst wave of violence in Afghanistan since the Taliban was ousted from power by U.S. air attacks supported by special forces and Afghan ground troops.

Much of the bloodshed has been blamed on the militia, which has declared a "jihad," or holy war on foreign troops, aid organizations and their supporters.

Hafizullah said Taliban holed up in the area of Chinaran had been surrounded, a claim a Taliban official denied.

Mullah Abdul Jabar, recently appointed governor of Zabul by the Taliban, told Reuters early on Sunday by satellite telephone that his forces were easily defending themselves and inflicting heavy casualties on their enemies.

He also said the Taliban had downed a U.S. helicopter on Thursday, and that five U.S. soldiers had been killed in the incident. Hafizullah dismissed the report.

The U.S. military contributes about 10,000 troops to the 12,500-strong force hunting remnants of the Taliban and the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden it once sheltered.