Counter offensive in Afghanistan

AP/Washington Post:

The U.S.-led coalition is unleashing more than 11,000 troops to attack militants in the southern mountains of Afghanistan, the biggest offensive since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The push starting Thursday by U.S., British, Canadian and Afghan troops aims to squeeze Taliban fighters in four volatile provinces. It will focus on southern Uruzgan and northeastern Helmand, where the military says most of the forces are massed.

The offensive comes amid Afghan and coalition efforts to curb the fiercest Taliban-led violence since the hard-line Islamic government was toppled for harboring Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The force of more than 11,000 troops is by far the largest deployed in Afghanistan for one operation since the 2001 invasion. Previous offensives in the country have involved several thousand soldiers.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, U.S. operational commander in Afghanistan, said coalition and Afghan troops would attack "Taliban enemy sanctuary or safe haven areas" in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces.

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"This is our approach to put simultaneous pressure on the enemy's networks, to cause their leaders to make mistakes, and to attack those leaders," Freakley said. He spoke to The Associated Press ahead of an AP embed with the military in Helmand province, where the U.S. is establishing a new forward operating base in support of the offensive.

The offensive, called Operation Mountain Thrust, began May 15 with attacks on Taliban command and control and support networks. Mid-May marked a sharp increase in firefights between militants and coalition forces.

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The approach is to bring a sufficient force to fill the space that will catch the Taliban as they retreat from one area of attack to another. The force to space concept is the most important approach to defeating an enemy with a raiding strategy like the Taliban. The Taliban uses a raiding strategy because they are too weak to use a combat persisting strategy where forces stay in contact until one side defeats the other. By "flooding the zone" it becomes harder for the enemy to avoid contact. The Taliban's "spring offensive" has been a disaster for them militarily and this operation is a way to exploit and further weaken the Taliban forces.