Taliban ambush backfires--again

Reuters:

U.S.-led coalition troops killed some 55 Taliban insurgents who ambushed them in southeastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border, the U.S. military said on Monday.

There has been a sharp rise in violence along Afghanistan's eastern frontier in recent months. NATO generals say de-facto ceasefires between Pakistan's new government and militants in its border region free up insurgents to infiltrate into Afghanistan.

Taliban insurgents ambushed the coalition forces with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in the Zerok district of Paktika province on Friday, a U.S. military statement said.

"Around 55 anti-Afghan forces were killed, 25 wounded and three detained as part of the combined response of coalition ground and air forces," the statement said.

...

It is too bad we cannot induce the Taliban into ambushing our troops more often. The Taliban are basically light infantry with poor training and discipline. They have no answer to our combined arms counter attacks which include air power. By ambushing our forces they give away their position and are vulnerable to air attacks.

Ambushes have been a staple of the Afghan way of making war for centuries, but they have lost their effectiveness in this war. It is time for the Taliban to realize their cause is hopeless. Their fatalistic mentality is blinding them to their obvious defeat in this war.

AFP reports that three Taliban commanders were killed in the attack on the ambush.

Bill Roggio has more details on the engagement.