World Affairs Board - View Single Post

Ray · 04-22-2005, 16:41 PM

Quote:

Afghanistan News

Taliban operatives plan spring offensive

KABUL (Agencies): Taliban guerrillas are coordinating attacks on American and Afghan forces as part of a new springtime campaign of violence, the US military said after 17 militants died in a gunbattle.
Afghanistan has recently seen some of its fiercest fighting for months with more than 30 insurgents linked to the ousted Islamic regime dying in firefights in the past week, according to officials.
“I think that there is a coordinated effort by the insurgents to make attacks against the ANA (Afghan National Army) and coalition forces,” US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore told reporters in Kabul.
Three years of operations by an 18,000-strong US-led coalition have fragmented the ousted Islamic regime, but a top US commander warned last week they could coalesce ahead of parliamentary elections due in September.
Moore attributed the surge in violence to the warm spring weather, which has historically allowed militants to leave the mountainous hideouts they use during the freezing winter months. “I think we are seeing attacks of similar nature... to the last couple of years in spring,” she said, adding that Afghan and US forces would “aggressively pursue” the insurgents.
Local commanders said gunbattles in southeastern Zabul province on Monday left 17 militants dead, including some linked to the Al-Qaeda network. Officials said another 16, at least five of them Pakistani and Chechen nationals, were captured. Also on Monday, Afghan soldiers killed two Taliban militants and seized three others including a senior commander, officials said.
One week earlier US helicopter gunships and jets killed 12 militants after a Taliban ambush in southeastern Paktia province, officials said.
Early Wednesday insurgents in a Pakistani border village fired at least four “long-range” missiles which landed near a US-led military outpost in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province, the provincial security commander said.
Afghan officials have repeatedly accused militants of crossing the porous border and using Pakistani territory to attack targets in Afghanistan.
However, the US-led military has repeatedly praised Pakistan’s military activities against the insurgents, most recently during a meeting between US, Afghan and Pakistani representatives in Islamabad.

http://frontierpost.com.pk/

This is from the Frontier Post of Pakistan.

The Frontier (NWFP) is adjacent to Afghanistan and hence this requires attention.

One must be on the guard.