Taliban Weakened

The capture of the Taliban leader Mullah Salam, comes on the heels of news that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's No. 2, had been captured early this month in Pakistan.

The news reports referring to his capture have been very low key, which is really the way to describe the  press reporting on the ongoing operation in Afghanistan, there have already been significant gains, but the military appear to  have learned from past campaigns to not have to much fanfare over each little accomplishment.

It seems as though everything is going to plan, and a significant number of  Taliban leaders, the number running into 3 figures, had been killed by British and US special forces  leading up to the start of this latest operation, this has served to severely restrict the Taliban capability.

So far so good, not to many casualty’s on the allied side, but I am sure the Taliban will have one final surge before they lose to our inevitable superior firepower.

DurdensView Tags: Taliban, Mullah Sallam, Abdul Ghani Baradar

Taliban Leader Killed

Baitullah Mehsud is yet to be 100% confirmed dead but it is looking increasingly likely that he is, and good riddance, this is a huge blow in the fight against the Taliban in Pakistan, Mehsud commanded around 20,000 fighters, and  had been responsible for a sustained suicide bombing campaign, including the 2007 killing of Benazir Bhutto.

The success of the campaign in Swat has given the authorities a difficult problem to ponder do they push on with the campaign into South Waziristan where the base of Mehsud’s operations are or not, this brings then perilously close to taking on the Afghan Taliban, there the terrain lends itself more to guerrilla fighting and they would be taking on more battle hardened fighters like the Uzbeks and the Chechens.

Pakistan has been accused in the past of turning a blind eye and of not doing enough to stop the spread of the Taliban, after the operation in the Swat valley these accusations are no longer justified. So to publicly Pakistani officials have been complaining about the  unmanned US drone  strikes saying they violate Pakistan’s sovereignty, but privately they are delighted with recent results, as well as Mehsud a host of top Taliban commanders have been taken out  this year, some reports put the number at over 20.

I did think earlier this year when this offensive campaign was launched that this could be a turning point for Pakistan, and it looks as though it will be  if momentum is maintained, high profile success's like Mehsud’s death will spur the authorities on.

DurdensView Tags: Taliban, Pakistan, Uzbek, Chechen, Guerrilla

The End for the Taliban

The US has just launched the biggest ever offensive against the Taliban In Helmund province, by years end there will be almost 70,000 American troops there with another 33,000 Nato soldiers making up the numbers. I think this time they can be successful, in previous attempts at dislodging the Taliban from Helmund the attacks have been more surgical with much smaller numbers, and it was always  just a clearing exercise rather than a snatch and hold. This time it will be an all out assault with overwhelming fire power, so confident are commanders that they believe the first 36 hours will decimate the enemy, after that it will be a case of mopping up, nobody expects that it will be finished then because the Taliban will then take to the hills, and for the foreseeable future will fight a kind of guerrilla war. Critics point out that the Afghans have never been beaten on their own turf, but if my history is correct they have been beaten  before when the warrior Genghis Khan invaded,but this isn’t against the Afghan population this is against the terrorist population,   Khan’s tactics  was like the Americans are employing now huge numbers and overwhelming force. Gradually as the Americans start to rebuild their towns and villages and stay and protect them from the terrorists, the locals will see their lives returning to normal and start to accept the Troops for what they are, Nation builders not occupiers, I will be watching events there closely, and I am confident in 6 months we will see a return to normal for the locals with the Taliban in tatters.

Pakistan Taliban

Significant leaders of the Pakistani Taleban have been killed or captured in an onslaught of frontier ground and air attacks, a Pakistani general has told the media.

“The militant command and control centres and their caches have been dismantled or captured,” said Major-General Tariq Khan. He goes as far as to say the Pakistan Taliban no longer exist as a cohesive military force.

Big words from the General and if they are accurate, it has a been a brilliant campaign from the Pakistan military, with 790 Taliban killed since November and hundreds more captured.

The claims come at a time of improved military co-operation between America and Pakistan, in which US drones have killed a number of key Pakistani Taleban commanders, and Pakistani security agents have arrested at least four senior Afghan Taleban leaders over the past month.

Some positive news from that part of the World at last, now if that success can be replicated in Afghanistan, that really would be a reason to be optimistic, our troops may soon be on the way home.

DurdensView Tags: Pakistan, taliban, Tariq Khan

The Afghan War

With President Karzai poised to claim outright victory in Afghanistan’s flawed elections, the Election committee is poised to delay the release of preliminary results and cancel hundreds of thousands of ballots.

Dr Abdullah Abdullah has accused Karzai of widespread fraud, and independent monitors look like they will back Abdullah’s claims. What a waste of lives and effort operation Panthers claw turned out to be in respect of providing security and persuading Afghans to come out and vote, The threat of the Taliban was to much for the majority of voters.

In military terms the operation was a success if you measure success by the amount of enemy they killed, however the numbers of Taliban combined with foreign fighters is still a problem.

I have said before this battle needs a greater focus on wiping out the Taliban, at the moment as they have been for the last 7 /8 years the military is fighting a war and trying to win “Hearts and minds” and this is hampering their effort.

I say lets forget “Hearts and minds”  for a sustained all out assault, with other Nato members stepping up to the plate and  providing troops, the US is planning a surge with up to another 100,000 troops to be deployed, and at the risk of repeating my self, if Europe can manage 100,000 to maybe this war can be ended.

DurdensView Tags: Karzai, Abdullah, Taliban, Nato

Pakistan Guilty

Sarfraz Naeemi was the moderate cleric killed by a suicide bomber in Pakistan Yesterday. The killer struck as he walked away from morning prayers, Naeemi had started to build a coalition of like minded clerics who spoke out against the Taliban and other terrorist groups in Pakistan, slowly the public are beginning to turn away from the crazy Mullah's and their twisted version of Islam. It has to be asked how this man could have been such a soft target, if Pakistan expect us to believe the shadowy SIS (the Pakistani security service) were not complicit in this murder, they have to purge it of Taliban sympathisers. Why was Naeemi not better protected if indeed he had any protection, after all it was obvious he was a target after condemning the strict version of the Koran preached by the militants, and the violence used to enforce it. The SIS created the Taliban, If Pakistan want to reclaim their country then its up to them to help destroy the elements bent on destroying it. President Zardari must not only talk tough he must be seen to be tough, he has tried the path of negotiation with the fanatic's and it blew up in his face with the Taliban making camp barely 100 miles from the Capital. Thanks to US pressure that surge by the terrorists has been contained and they have been pushed back and are on the run. The Government must share responsibility for Naeemi's death, they need to now make sure it was not in vain.

Marjah

Marjah sits just 12 miles from Helmand and is home to just 80,000 people but it could be the tipping point in the war In Afghanistan, The Taliban have a full functioning shadow “Government” there, so Nato ’s all out assault on it is hugely symbolic.

The battle for Marjah will be bloody and US and British forces will take casualty’s but the outcome is not in any doubt the Taliban there will be crushed,  tribal elders that were chased away by the insurgents are poised to return and take over.

This offensive has been announced in the press well before it starts with a lot of the details being made public, on the face of it seeming a strange tactical move informing the enemy of your plans in this way, but there is method in the madness the idea is twofold,1) it gives civilians a chance to leave or at least plan to bunker down until its over, 2) Nato hope to entice more Taliban to the battle so as to inflict greater casualty’s on them.

This assault on the Taliban stronghold will be the biggest offensive since the invasion began in 2001, if successful it could be the turning point in the war, this has been a long time in coming, the Afghan forces are ready to look after there own security paving the way for our troops to come home.

The operation is expected to last about a month and if it goes the way the planners have predicted this will pave the way for our boys to return home sooner rather than later.

DurdensView Tags: Afghanistan, Marjah, Nato

Children Bombers

By now any regular reader knows my feeling on the barbaric Taliban and all they stand for, how they do what they do and claim it’s for religion is beyond me, I’m sure most decent minded people would agree with that.

But yet they are able to reach new lows, today its reported that up to 1500 children varying in age from 7 to 13 had been kidnapped in the Swat valley for use as suicide bombers, five were rescued this weekend, and they tell a harrowing tale.

They speak of up to 16 hours a day in classrooms being brainwashed to the twisted version of Islam these fanatics follow, even being encouraged to kill their own parents if they are perceived to support the  Government or US troops in any way. These children were taken when the Taliban were grabbing huge areas of land in Swat with no opposition, its only when they looked to threaten Islamabad and with pressure from the US did the Pakistani’s act.

Their offensive has been reasonably successful, Swat is being purged of Taliban, yet the children remain missing, its believed they have been sold on to other groups. Anybody out there that had any sympathy with the Taliban cause, please think again.

General David Petraeus

General David Petraeus the overall  Commander of allied forces in Afghanistan is now saying what I have been saying on these pages for some time now that the only way to win in Afghanistan is a substantial assault on the Taliban, as things stand although the enemy cant win militarily all they really need to do is sit it out, eventually western troops would have to leave. This would count as a victory for them and be a huge recruitment boost for the terrorists.

Over the years the Afghani’s have had many battles they have won by outstaying the enemy, most notably and most recently against the might of the then Soviet Union. This looks to be going the same way unless we change our approach, I have been arguing for a while now that only a sustained overpowering assault will break the Taliban, and by sustained maybe 6/9 months, the hearts and minds softly approach has not and will not work there.

There are to many separate factions led by to many Warlords that have their own private battles they chop and change their alliances as and when it suits them, many sides will fight for money rather than ideology, and this makes it harder to negotiate a peace. So now that General Petraeus has said it maybe we will have some some movement on the troop front, the formula is simple overwhelming firepower, this is where Nato Countries need to contribute more , there is to much burden on Britain and the US.

Massive numbers of boots on the ground, stifle the enemy movement, block all supply routes then move in and crush, do not give them time to regroup and re-arm as happened in the past in the guise of a ceasefire.

General Petraeus took charge in Iraq when it was being said the Country was imploding and there was no hope, using the same formula we have a very different Iraq today, its not perfect by any means but its a million miles away from where it was in the early days of the conflict. And the situation there is improving daily, Iraqi Troops are responsible for their own security and Nato troops are there mainly as back up.

So lets back the General and we may not have our troops home by this Christmas but lets make sure they are back by the next one.

DurdensView Tags: General David Petraeus, Afghanistan, Iraq, Taliban

Wannabee Taliban Scum

Colnbrook immigration centre is in the news because of the number of Taliban supporters it houses. Scores of inmates are being recruited there as Taliban fighters who claim they will join the battle against the British as soon as they are returned home. They are said to be delirious with excitement at the news of British casualty’s, and have taken to singing football style chants like 8-0 -8-0 at news of the biggest single days casualty’s we have had so far this year. There have been some high profile inmates held there including Abu Qatada reported to be Bin Laden's right hand man in Europe. Well I say Let them go lets ship them out immediately, anyone who wants to fight let’s take and drop them into the battle zone we will see how tough these scum talk then. Its easy to be brave thousands of miles away from the front line with a roof over your head and 3 meals  day, If these animals hate us so much why are they here in the first place, and why do they fight so hard through the courts to be allowed to stay,

Bribe the Taliban

British forces should buy off potential Taleban recruits with “bags of gold”, according to a new army field manual published yesterday. The Taliban pays ten dollars a day to fighters, that equals £5.95 a day. the thinking being if we gave them say 15 dollars a day that’s £8.92 to you and me  they would switch sides.

What we should be offering are Tax credits and child benefit plus a free house with garden, that should seal the deal, if any terrorists are still undecided then chuck in a car an i phone and membership to the local golf club.

This is a brilliant idea in theory, after all the cost of running a war like this runs into the billions, not to mention the cost in human life,

But can anyone seriously believe  that this would work, I would love to spend a day in Whitehall watching the way the “Genius’s” that come up with theses ideas work and also to enquire which planet they originally came from.

Everybody knows that terrorists are the most trustworthy of people and no way would they consider taking the money and still shoot at us. any suggestion that the money we give them could in turn be used to buy more bullets and explosives to be used against us is preposterous.

DurdensView Tags: Taliban, Bribe

Offensive Launched

More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers were launched on a long-awaited ground offensive to destroy Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in their strongholds near the Afghan border yesterday. The Pakistani army attacked militants in South Waziristan, a lawless tribal area, with troops advancing from three directions, strongly supported by fighter planes and helicopter gunships.

This attack has been months in the planning and hopes to emulate the success the army enjoyed in Swat where overwhelming force beat the Taliban and reclaimed the valley.

Last night an army statement said four soldiers had been killed and 12 wounded in exchanges of fire. Earlier at least 11 suspected insurgents were reported to have been killed in bombing raids. This operation is expected to last a minimum of 8 weeks, independent verification of the progress of the battle will be hard to come by as no foreign journalists are allowed into the area and the Pakistani press have all fled.

It took a threat from America of withholding civilian aid from Pakistan to make this offensive  a reality, without US money Pakistan would not be able to survive, and a overthrown Pakistan is a nightmare scenario for the rest of the World, but now that it has started I believe the Pakistani’s will see it through,

Previous army offensives have normally failed because the army never had the stomach for a prolonged fight and would usually make a deal after a while, but after the success of Swat valley they believe they can actually win.

DurdensView Tags: Offensive, Taliban, Swat

Obama’s Mistake

Though I welcome President Obama’s pledge to send an extra thirty thousand troops to Afghanistan to have a final decisive push in wiping out the Taliban and settling the insurgency, I have reservations.

I think any right minded person would welcome a strategy that would get this awful conflict which has claimed so may lives over and done with, and we could finally bring our troops home leaving behind a settled Afghanistan.

But what was Obama and his team thinking when they announced a pull out date, they announced July 2011 as the start date for all troops to be out of the Country. This is a monumental error in judgement, all the Taliban need to do now if they don’t want to fight is sit tight  wait out the invaders.

One thing these fanatics have consistently shown is patience and durability, lessons they have learned the hard way most recently against the Russians. I would imagine now apart from sporadic attacks to show they are still around things will quieten down dramatically, until the coast is clear and then business as usual, the Taliban  have quietly been building bases they have  “Government” already in 11 of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan.

Obama and his team need to rethink the withdrawal policy and announce they are there until the job is finished.

DurdensView Tags: Obama, Afghanistan

Troops Tough it Out

Fifteen dead in the last 15 days,  those are the grim figures coming out of Afghanistan at the moment, the total figure so far of 184 dead is equal to the total amount of British troops lost in Iraq over six years. These numbers do not make good reading, but now is not the time to let our resolve weaken. Progress is being made, the numbers we are not getting are the enemy losses which sources, though the Ministry of Defence wont confirm put at many hundreds in the last couple of weeks, and many thousands over the last few months. The calls for the troops to come home are getting louder and are more frequent as the death toll increases. But  this is a war we cannot afford to lose if we walk away from Afghanistan before the Taliban is defeated it will only be a matter of time before they take over that Country, and from there Pakistan would be next,  The battle there at the moment  is going well and the terrorists are being beaten, Large areas that were under Taliban control are no longer. As  British Afgan and US troops continue their push into Helmund Taliban leader Mullah Omar and his men are being pushed back towards Pakistan where they will be trapped and have no  place  to run to. Failure here is not an option, imagine that we did give up and left them to their own devices,  how long before Pakistan fell, and we had to face a Nuclear armed enemy. So for the sake of peace and security  in the future we must tough it out now.

Pakistan "Swat" the Taliban

At last the Pakistani people have woken up to the fact they need to fight for their own country,with a series of marches against the Taliban planned in the coming days and weeks, after watching their country be brought to the brink, government troops have taken back Mingora, an exodus of upwards of 3 million people have forced the army to accelerate their efforts in the Swat valley, With over 1200 militants killed in the last month alone the public are beginning to believe this is a fight they can win, we in the west should give as much help as we can to the cause as stability in  a nuclear Pakistan is to all our benefit. Hostility to the west appears to have lessened to as the U.S have taken a more discreet approach to dealing with the terrorists, Drone attacks which had been accused of causing excessive civilian casualties are down for the month of may. lets pray momentum is maintained.

Afghan Vote

Expect a news blackout over the next 24 hours or so as media outlets will be banned from reporting violence from Afghanistan, attacks have started already with the Taliban threatening to cut of the fingers of anyone caught voting.

Afghan Politicians are trying desperately to find ways to get civilians to the polling booths, Nato forces have stopped all offensives against militants for the next 48 hours to allow voting to go ahead and are staying away from polling booths as not to act as magnets for attacks.

The incumbent Hamid Karzai looks like the likely favourite to win, but may have to rely on a second round of votes to secure a second term, Abdullah Abdullah the former Foreign Minister looks like he may push him all the way, I hope that Abdullah does win Karzai’s 5 years have not really produced as much as it could of, and he is finding it tough to dodge  the corruption rumours that have been dogging him.

Once these elections are out of the way I think the British and US should take a hard look at  the way the operation is going over there, the sacrifices of  both those nations troops cannot be underestimated, it benefits all of Europe indeed the World  to have a peaceful and stable Afghanistan so why are the bulk of troops only from these two Countries.

It’s time the rest of the world done their share, US pressure can be very effective, It’s Time Obama stepped up to the plate, and twisted the arms of our so called allies and got them to contribute troops,  a massive surge of say a hundred thousand troops could make a huge difference. The quicker we can bring our boys home safely the better.

DurdensView Tags: Karzai, Afghanistan, Obama, Abdullah, US, Taliban

War On The Cheap

I am a believer that we should be in Afghanistan and that the mission there is worthwhile, that part of the world left to its own devices would be overrun by the Taliban and Al Qaeda in no time and then the enemy we face would have the resources of a country, a state next door to Pakistan a mess of a County crammed full of nuclear weapons. So we really do have no choice, but it is criminal that our armed forces can be sent into a warzone ill equipped. The last two weeks have seen us take huge loss’s 15 dead and up to fifty wounded some losing limbs, war as we know is a dangerous business and soldiers will be killed and injured and troops are aware of this when they sign up, but we should be looking to minimise this risk anyway we can. In a straight fire fight our troops will defeat the Taliban every time so their preferred method of attack is using IED’s these are improvised explosive devices, hidden bombs planted on roadsides in buildings even under dead bodies, this weapon has caused by far the most deaths and casualty’s. We can eliminate a big part of the dangers they face everyday by giving them the correct and the right amount of equipment. Helicopters would give our troops more freedom of movement in safety, but in typical fashion this Labour Government, unbelievably to save money are not doing so. yesterday in the commons Gordon Brown blatantly lied when he said Helicopter numbers had increased by 60% in the last 2 years, and that capability had increased by 84%, when sources in Helmund said they were at their lowest for a year. In may our whole fleet of Lynx helicopters were sent home leaving just 13 amongst 9000 troops. I know that this kind of equipment is expensive but let’s get our priority’s right in 2008 we gave away 7.8 billion pounds in foreign aid, already this year we have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on legal aid for illegal immigrants fighting to stay in this country, millions more on interpreters for these people, anybody who sets foot on these shores is entitled to housing and benefits. So let us pressure our MP’s  to do what it takes no matter what the cost to  make sure our troops are  sent into battle with whatever they need.

Pakistani Intelligence

A U.S. drone strike this week killed a senior al Qaeda operator in a Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Friday.

U.S. officials said Saleh al-Somali, who was responsible for al Qaeda's operations outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan, was killed in the strike Tuesday. He was on the C.I.A.’S  list of the top 20 al Qaeda targets, according to an official familiar with the list.

For all the Pakistani Governments public berating of the Americans for using drones on Pakistan territory it was information provided by Pakistan’s SIS that led to the death of al-Somali.

The SIS (Pakistan intelligence service) has in the past been accused of having very close ties to Al Quaeda, so its about time they came on board.

With the 30.000 extra troops  “surge” in Afghanistan expected to be in full flow by the summer of 2010, and victory over the Taliban said to be accomplished in approx 18 months, the Pakistani’s know that the next major  battle in the war on terror  will be  fought in Pakistan’s border regions.

It will be interesting to see how accurate the time scale predicted for victory in Afghanistan is, with the new tactics of actively going after the Taliban and smashing them wherever they are found is.

Obama has said the troop pullout starts in July 2011.  and security handed over to the Afghans themselves to take responsibility for their own Country I believe its possible.

DurdensView Tags: Pakistan, al -Somali, Afghanistan

Taliban- Sick Animals

Just saw a news report that the Taliban have detonated a huge bomb on the outskirts of  Kabul, it was very near a primary school and 12 of the reported 25 dead are schoolboys. It appears the truck carrying timber with the  bomb hidden beneath it skidded of the road and finished in a ditch quite close to the school, when emergency services came to help it was detonated manually.  Now it could be argued that the truck was being driven into Kabul to target a Government building or an army barracks, not that that would be acceptable, but with their twisted logic they could perhaps make a case of being at war. But once the truck has stopped by a school only containing civilians what earthly justification could there be for detonating it, these people claim to act in Gods name, they are animals, sick animals , and sick animals need to be put down. I hope this spurs on the US and Afghan forces to smash these people wherever they find them.

Afghan Update

I see the Government has bowed to pressure, after a torrid time in the press  with  John Hutton the Defence Secretary announcing that British troops in Afghanistan will get whatever they need to do the job, the shameful situation where our troops were put in extra danger through a lack of helicopters and kit will be put right as soon as possible. Public opinion is said to be turning against having troops out there,  I think this is due to the media not reporting facts totally, when we hear about casualties from that part of the world it’s only about British and allied troops, we do not get casualty figures for the enemy, this is a deliberate strategy by the Government. I am not altogether sure the reasoning behind this, but through a little research I have found that for every one of our boys approximately 50 Taliban are killed. Morale on the front line is good and commanders on the ground say progress being made, though it is  slow progress, not because the enemy is strong but because of the cowardly way they fight their war leaving bombs and booby traps. Ground is being regained and held and civilians are beginning to return home to their towns and villages. Maybe the safe return home of our lads is closer than we think.