Guarding the approaches to Kandahar
...There is much more.The insurgents rode off on motorbikes. But as darkness fell, they attacked another outpost. From two miles away, I heard American paratroopers firing more than 1,000 rounds back. Afghan soldiers on a hill behind us opened up with heavy machinegun fire, right over our heads.
It was the Taliban’s first direct attack this year on American bases in Arghandab valley, northwest of the city — the first shots of what many soldiers believe will be the decisive battle of President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan.
The paratroopers of 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, from the 82nd Airborne Division, have faced a largely hidden enemy since they arrived just before Christmas. Within days a chain of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) killed a company commander, Captain Paul Pena, and another soldier. The leader of the platoon I joined lost a leg.
Last week, however, the Taliban were moving into the open. A suicide bomber who attacked one patrol killed only himself. But as spring warmth and irrigated water restore the vegetation to this valley of grapes and pomegranates, the opportunities flourish for insurgents to mount ambushes.
“This is going to be quite a hunting season,” said a paratrooper, one of nearly 20,000 foreign and Afghan soldiers committed to the forthcoming offensive.
Many are guarding the approaches to Kandahar, which is not only Afghanistan’s second city, with a population of more than half a million, but is also the spiritual home of the Taliban.
While the focus of most recent fighting in southern Afghanistan has been on the neighbouring province of Helmand, where British troops are based, Kandahar was long left largely to a contingent of a few hundred Canadian troops. According to commanders of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), this inattention contributed to a steady deterioration of security.
In the city, residents describe a pervasive fear resulting from assassinations, intimidation and suicide car bombs.
In much of the surrounding countryside, the Taliban are either in open control or have threatened government officials to the point where they are too afraid to open schools or clinics.
Describing the forthcoming campaign at his bustling Kandahar airport base, Major-General Nick Carter, the British head of Nato's southern command, revealed that his approach would be radically different in the city and the countryside.
In the countryside, Nato and Afghan units will push into new territory to restore government authority “where perhaps none exists”, Carter said. It is here that his commanders expect the heaviest fighting.
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I think we have seen a preview of this battle at Marjah. The Taliban my try to fight for a few days or even weeks, but ultimately they will drop their weapons and pretend to be locals or just leave. The fact is they would be foolish to have any direct attacks on our forces.
I spent 15 months in Afghanistan as a soldier in the 508th two years ago. Our unit was under NATO command, as the theatre's tactical reserve force. As the TTF we were based out of Kandahar Airfield but conducted operations all over the country, which gave me unique perspective on what was going on in that country. I've worked in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Oruzgan, Nangahar and other provinces. We were involved in the fight for Musa Qala, the "Marjah" of 2007. We might be winning the bodycount , but we will never defeat the Taliban militarily. It is refreshing to see that Karzai has reached out to the Taliban, in an attempt to end this senseless war. This war is no different than most wars. It's about making the powerful profiteers richer, and nothing else.
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