A cat and mouse war with the Taliban

Sunday Telegraph:

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The first battle began last week when soldiers from the Grenadier Guard's No2 Company, commanded by Major Richard Green, ambushed Taliban fighters, who had been launching a series of "shoot and scoot" attacks against the British base.

Troops lured the Taliban towards their positions. Lying in wait were two teams of snipers, who immediately shot dead four Taliban gunmen as they approached the scene. A further four insurgents were killed as they attempted to attack the British base.

The following day another battle erupted when British troops patrolling in the area were attacked. As the troops withdrew to their base, around 20 Taliban mounted a daring attack but virtually all were killed or injured in the assault.

The Taliban continued to attack the base every day for most of last week but each assault was repelled, with the Taliban suffering heavy casualties.

In one incident, several Taliban fighters were killed in a Javelin missile strike, while the insurgent leaders were holding an attack Shura (meeting) prior to an assault.

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Lieutenant Colonel Roly Walker, the commanding officer of the Grenadier Guards Battle Group, said that his men were acting responsibly and had little choice but to open fire given the Taliban were attempting to overrun the base.

He said: "The Taliban have achieved nothing except send many of their number to their deaths. It is an absolute waste and it has happened night after night. I would dearly love to sit down and talk to these people and ask them what they think they are doing. It is serving no useful purpose at all but we must protect ourselves."

In the south of the battle group's area, soldiers from the reconnaissance platoon ambushed a large insurgent force who were attempting to infiltrate into the village of Shesh Kalay.

The battle was initiated just after dawn on Saturday November 7th by two snipers who killed four heavily armed Taliban fighters as they moved towards the village. The fighting continued for most of the days and into the early evening before the Taliban retreated.

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"This was a classic operation. We moved in, 'recced' the area, studied the approaches and waited. We had the Afghan National Army and Afghan Police embedded with us and they were fantastic.

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This is good trade craft by the British forces. They are studying the avenues of approach to their position and setting up ambushes to thwart the Taliban attacks. While the use of snipers is effective, they could also set up some artillery or mortar attacks preregistered with GPS coordinates to box in the Taliban and destroy the entire force.

It seems clear that Lt. Col. Walker has bought into the counterinsurgency plan, but I would not be so concerned about enemy forces killed in the course of an attack on his forces. They are the ones we should be trying to destroy, which should make it easier to talk reason to the survivors.