While the war in Iraq gets most of the attention, the war in Afghanistan has become a struggle whose outcome is no longer a certainty. The Taliban, which had been almost on the verge of extinction, is now a potent force once again in Afghanistan. More US troops are needed there as soon as possible to stem the tide of increasingly successful Taliban military power.
In a news release today Afghan officials say hundreds of Taliban fighters have taken over several villages just outside Kandahar, southern Afghanistan's largest city, and NATO and Afghan forces are redeploying to meet the threat. Mohammad Farooq, the government leader in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province, said around 500 Taliban fighters moved into his district. Arghandab lies just north of Kandahar city -- the Taliban's former stronghold.
The push into Arghandab comes three days after a Taliban attack on Kandahar's prison freed hundreds of fighters. Last Thursday, NATO spokesman Mark Laity said NATO and Afghanistan military officials were redeploying troops to the region to "meet any potential threats." Laity said the jailbreak put more militants into the region
US-led coalition force will suffer more casualties and take longer to secure Afghanistan's lawless border with Pakistan without more troops, a senior US military official said on Thursday. Vice Admiral William Sullivan also expressed concern that Pakistan will remove troops from its side of the border as part of peace deals the new government has struck with militants in the tribal areas.
2 comments:
I am extremely disturbed by the lack of media coverage regarding the struggles in Afghanistan. They've essentially neglected the most critical part of our activities in the middle east.
It seems the administration almost forgot about Afghanistan, but when our NATO allies nearly got overrun by the Taliban suddenly we remembered we were about to lose a country to the dark side. You can't count on media coverage to cover anything that isn't right in front of their nose.
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