Afghan, coalition troops retake “lost” district, 15 Taleban killed

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/June/subcontinent_June81.xml§ion=subcontinent

KABUL - Afghan and coalition forces have killed at least 15 Taleban fighters and driven the insurgents into the mountains after an combined air and ground assault to retake control of a southern district, officials said on Saturday

Coalition aircraft dropped troops into the remote Chora district in Uruzgan province late Friday and pushed Taleban fighters back into nearby mountains, the ministry said in a statement.

“At least 15 Taleban bodies were found,” it added.

The coalition, which numbers more than 20,000 soldiers, has been in Afghanistan since 2001 to round up Taleban insurgents and Al Qaeda linked militants.

[Yupster]

1. The Afghan war will be unending

It's a classic guerrilla situation where if the guerrillas are determined and if they have a safe haven to refresh themselves in, they can't be beaten.

In this case the Taleban are as committed as anyone in the world, and as long as they have the Pakistani tribal region to recruit train and fall back into, then they can never be actually defeated regardless of how many troops and regardless of what the Afghan civilians think of them. They can lose battles, recruit fresh fodder from the akistani madrasas, and then come back to lose again next year.

Since I don't think Pakistan is able to bring the tribal lands under its control, the situation seems endless.

And that's my optimistic side.


On edit, I'm surrently reading the book "Jawbreaker" which was written by Gary Bernstein, a CIA field commander with the Northern Alliance during the Afghan War. It's a pretty amazing book.