Mision FAS: Afganistán

[kilo009]

IED en Badghis, Qadis, contra civiles que viajaban en un Land Cruisser, dos mujeres y un hombre mueren; en otro ataque muere otro hombre por ataque de "misiles" de la insurgencia, seguramente RPG, en BalaMurghab:

Badghis attacks leave 4 dead
by Abdul Latif Ayubi on 19 September, 2010
QALA-I-NAW (PAN): A man and three women were killed in a roadside bomb explosion and a missile attack in northwestern Badghis province on Sunday, officials said.

Two women and a man were killed when their Land Cruiser jeep hit a roadside bomb in the Tagab area of Qadis town, the district police chief told PajhwokAfghan News.

Abdul Wahab said the vehicle was going from Qadis to Gowand district. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the blast, but police blamed Taliban insurgents.

Elsewhere in the province, a 65-year-old woman was killed and her grandson wounded in a missile strike in the Dara village of Balamorghab district.

The missile was fired by Taliban insurgents, said Muhammad Ibrahim Gariftar, the district governor. The victims were going to their relatives' residence. http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2010/09/19/ba ... ave-4-dead

[Heittman]

ARRANCA LA OFENSIVA CONTRA KANDAHAR

vi algunos videos en las noticias y la violencia de los combates es sobrecogedora

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan — American and Afghan troops began active combat last week in an offensive to drive the Taliban out of their strongholds surrounding the city of Kandahar, military officials said Sunday.
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Under Attack in Afghanistan
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Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Smoke rose after helicopters struck an insurgent position during a firefight in the Zhari District. More Photos »
The New York Times

Active combat began last week in three districts. More Photos »

In the last several days, soldiers shifted from guarding aid workers and sipping tea with village elders to actively hunting down Taliban fighters in marijuana fields and pomegranate orchards laced with booby traps.

Sixteen Americans have died in the push so far, including two killed by a roadside bomb on Sunday.

The combat phase began five or six days ago in the Arghandab, Zhari and Panjwai Districts, Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz, a NATO spokesman in Kabul, said, defining the current phase for the first time.

“We expect hard fighting,” he said of the offensive, whose objective is to clear the Taliban from three districts to the west and south of the city.

Winning over Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, is considered crucial to President Obama’s efforts to shift the balance of power in Afghanistan after the militants’ comeback of recent years.

“This is the most significant military operation ongoing in Afghanistan,” General Blotz, who is with the International Security Assistance Force of NATO, said, calling it the “top operational priority now.”

This is the first large-scale combat operation involving multiple objectives in Kandahar Province, where a military offensive was originally expected to begin in June. That offensive was downgraded to more of a joint civil-military effort after the military encountered problems containing the Taliban in the much smaller city of Marja and because Afghan leaders feared high civilian casualties.

During the last week of August, at the instigation of Afghan authorities, American troops supported a major push into the Mehlajat area on the southwest edge of Kandahar City, driving the Taliban from that area with few casualties on either side.

At the time, military officials said that was the beginning of what would be an increase in active combat around Kandahar.

Bismillah Khan, the police chief in the Zhari District, confirmed that the combat operation there began on Saturday, but he declined to give further details. Some of the heaviest fighting has been in Zhari, where troops have been told to avoid contact with local people because of widespread hostility toward foreign forces there.

Zhari is the hometown of the Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, and it also sits astride the strategic Highway 1, connecting Kandahar with Helmand Province to the west.

Often the soldiers there run what are known as “move to contact” patrols that have no goal but to draw fire from the Taliban so aircraft can find and kill them.

Last Tuesday, a United States Army platoon left Forward Operating Base Wilson early in the morning and within 10 minutes, Taliban insurgents had opened fire with small arms, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Although helicopter gunships were soon overhead to support the ground forces, the insurgents continued to fire on the patrol throughout the day as the troops made their way through vineyards and fields of marijuana plants 10 feet high.

None of the Americans were wounded or killed on that patrol.

Journalists from The New York Times, during a weeklong stay there, observed that every time soldiers left their bases, they were either shot at or hit with bombs, often hidden or booby-trapped.

Frequently, the Taliban did not — as they normally would — stop shooting once air support arrived.

Soldiers on a recent patrol, clearing up after one bomb explosion, discovered that a piece of debris lodged in a tree had itself been rigged with a tripwire, practically under their noses.

Here in Arghandab, the flow of troops has made it possible to begin trying to take control of an area where thick vegetation, irrigation canals and pomegranate orchards provide good cover for the Taliban, according to Lt. Col. Joseph Krebs, deputy commander for the Second Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, but the results have been mixed.

No sooner had the First Battalion of the 22nd Armored Regiment of the Army arrived here than five soldiers were killed on Aug. 30, by a roadside bomb directed at their convoy. The dead included the first Army chaplain to be killed in active duty during the Afghan conflict.

The chaplain, Capt. Dale A. Goetz, 43, had been on a tour of some of the 18 combat outposts the military has established in the Arghandab District.

Three days later, rockets fired from orchards just outside the district center hit the dining tent at the main American base, slightly wounding five soldiers.

While no official casualty totals have been released for the recent operations in the Kandahar districts, American military reports list 16 American fatalities in the Kandahar area since Aug. 30, at least 10 of which were in the Arghandab or Zhari Districts.

An effort to bring all of the heavily Pashtun south under coalition control began on Feb. 14 with an attempt to suppress the Taliban in and around Marja. Kandahar was to be the next target.

But the Taliban in Marja have still not been subdued, so officials decided to concentrate first on bringing economic development to some districts around Kandahar city, then on gradually stepping up military operations.

“I look at each one of my 13 combat platoons as a development team,” said Lt. Col. Rodger Lemons, commander of the First Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, stationed at the district headquarters here.

“I’m not going to tell you the population is fully in support, but they are much more in support of the government and the coalition than they are of the Taliban,” he said.

Along with the military buildup has come a similar effort to increase the presence of State Department employees, along with aid contractors paid by the Americans, who would serve as stabilization teams in those areas.

Although some 300 American civilian staff members have arrived in Kandahar Province, at the district levels there are only a few, mainly because of security concerns.

In Arghandab, where the civilian effort is deemed to have been the most successful, the district team consists of two Americans in addition to contractors and local employees.

“It’s hard to get people to come here,” said Kevin Melton, who is finishing up a yearlong tour running the State Department team in Arghandab.

When Mr. Melton arrived, the district government was not functioning. Now, there is an active shura or village council, with people coming to the district government’s building regularly, attracted by generous aid programs.

“Five dead and that’s the news that gets out,” Mr. Melton said, referring to the first fatalities in Arghandab. “Yeah, we know what’s going wrong, but look what’s going right. If we had done this eight years ago, would we have been here now?”

By comparison, other districts like Zhari and Panjwai are just getting started, he said.

Tyler Hicks contributed reporting from Zhari, Afghanistan, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar.

Campos de marihuana llenos de trampas explosivas... ... (segun mi traductor)



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/world ... lobal-home

[kilo009]

Operación de intel española y SOF ISAF (supongo que también españoles), que acaba con la captura del mullah Sadiqullah en Muqur.

La organización la lidera el mullah Gawsedin (este no ha caído), que según intel española, es quien organizó los ataques.

Según han informado fuentes militares a la Cadena SER, en el transcurso de una operación de la inteligecia española y de grupos de operaciones especiales de la ISAF ha sido detenido uno de los jefes y organizadores del atentado, que ocurrió el 25 de agosto y costó la vida a dos guardias civiles españoles y a su intérprete. http://www.cadenaser.com/espana/articul ... rnac_3/Tes

[Heittman]

Imagina, estaba yo leyendo mensajes viejos sobre infiltracion etc etc y me encuentro con esto que escribio kilo Publicado: 02 Ene 2010 08:55. Y entonces me acordé de los guardias civiles. Pareciera que fueras capaz de predecir el futuro, hombre. Si ya lo decia George Santayana, aquel que no conoce la historia está condenado a repetirla...

Supongo que después del ataque contra una base de la CIA en Afganistán, España tendrá que revisar los procedimientos actuales con el trato de colaboradores, personal infiltrado y miembros de las ANSF. Además en zona española ya se ha dado un caso similar hace poco, cuando un miembro del ANA disparó contra militares americanos e italianos en BalaMurghab.

Es importante controlar las zonas de la base donde puedan entrar el personal autóctono contratado, los lugares de reunión con colaboradores/intérpretes, el cacheo previo de todo el personal y las demás labores de contrainteligencia oportunas, junto a esto una importante labor de seguimiento del personal afgano que ingresa en las filas de la policía, fuerzas armadas y aunque más difícil, también su personal de inteligencia. Según prensa internacional, sobre el ataque hay dos opciones:

1) Infiltración de talibanes (pertenecientes seguramente a la red Haqqani en colaboración con la rama Mehsud) en las ANSF o intérpretes, y su confianza hace pasar sin problemas los controles de seguridad.

2) Colaborador arrepentido, intento de infiltración de la CIA en las redes que operan en Pakistán, y éstos le devuelven la moneda en forma de hombre bomba.

Desde luego lo que está claro es que esto es una respuesta a el creciente acoso de los americanos a la red Haqqani en Khost, y seguramente habrá respuesta en un espacio breve de tiempo. Si yo fuera un alto mando talibán estaría preocupado.

[kilo009]

Bueno, en primer lugar gracias Heittman , aunque no se trata de predecir el futuro, en este caso es ver una TTP insurgente, ya utilizada con los aliados y saber que cabe la posibilidad de que nos pase a nosotros. El enemigo es el mismo, con lo cual estas tácticas las difunde si ve que son provechosas, y el objetivo es el mismo (fuerzas aliadas en la zona, sea la CIA o Guardias Civiles del POLMT). Ante esas situaciones hay que tomar medidas, no se si las que indiqué fueron las mejores o no.

¿Posible situación hostil futura? Yo creo en la posibilidad de un ataque a gran escala sobre cualquier base avanzada, más ahora que le hemos capturado a un lugarteniente. Hay varios ejemplos de ataques de este tipo en Afganistán y los aliados lo han pasado mal.

Por cierto, que en Herat, la ANP, ha capturado a otro peso pesado, Mullah Abdul Wadood
http://spanish.peopledaily.com.cn/31618/7153378.html

[Heittman]

Un predator ha eliminado a un lider taliban y en respuesta ha habido un atentado con moto bomba en el que ha muerto el vicegobernador afgano de Ghazni. Aquí van las dos noticias.

US kills al Qaeda's leader for Afghanistan and Pakistan in Predator strike: Report
By Bill RoggioSeptember 28, 2010

Unconfirmed reports from Pakistan indicate the US has killed al Qaeda's newly appointed leader of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sheikh Fateh al Masri, the leader of Qaedat al Jihad fi Khorasan, or the base of the jihad in the Khorasan, was killed in a recent Predator strike, Pakistani intelligence officials told AFP.

US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal said they were aware of the reports and were investigating. One US official confirmed that Fateh was targeted in the spate of recent strikes but cautioned that given the total control that the Taliban and al Qaeda have in North Waziristan, it is difficult to be certain Fateh was killed.

Al Qaeda has not released a martyrdom statement announcing Fateh's death. Such statements are often released on jihadist Internet forums days or weeks after a leader is killed.

Fateh is thought to have been killed in the Sept. 25 strike in Datta Khel in North Waziristan, a known haven for al Qaeda's top leaders. In that attack, US Predators or Reapers fired three missiles at a vehicle, killing four "militants."

Datta Khel is administered by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taliban commander for North Waziristan. Despite the fact that Bahadar and the Haqqani Network shelter al Qaeda and other South and Central Asian terror groups, the Pakistani government and military refuse to take action in North Waziristan. Bahadar and the Haqqanis are viewed as "good Taliban" as they do not attack the Pakistani state.

Fatah replaced Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's former leader in Afghanistan, who was killed in the May 21 Predator airstrike in Datta Khel in North Waziristan. Yazid served as al Qaeda's chief financier and paymaster. Al Qaeda has not publicly named Yazid's replacement for its top financial official, nor is it likely to do so given the job's importance, intelligence officials said.

Fateh, like Yazid, is an Egyptian who is close to Ayman al Zawahiri. Egyptians hold a significant number of al Qaeda's top leadership positions.

The Khorasan is a region that encompasses large areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Iran. The Khorasan is considered by jihadists to be the place where they will inflict the first defeat against their enemies in the Muslim version of Armageddon. The final battle is to take place in the Levant - Israel, Syria, and Lebanon.

Mentions of the Khorasan have begun to increase in al Qaeda's propaganda since 2007. After al Qaeda's defeat in Iraq, the group began shifting its rhetoric from promoting Iraq as the central front in their jihad and has placed the focus on the Khorasan.


Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/ ... z10s3O4kfc

Suicide bomber kills Afghan deputy governor

By Mohammad Arif Yaqoubi (AFP) – 18 hours ago

GHAZNI, Afghanistan — A suicide attacker on an explosives-laden motorcycle on Tuesday killed a deputy Afghan governor and up to five other people in a direct attack on his vehicle, officials said.

Mohammad Kazim Allahyar, deputy governor for the troubled southern province of Ghazni, was on his way to his office when the bomber struck.

"The deputy governor has been martyred. His son and his nephew have also been martyred. In total, six people have been martyred," provincial police chief Delawar Zahid told AFP, describing the bombing as a "suicide attack".

Eight other people, including passers-by, were injured in the blast from the three-wheeled motorbike on a dirt road outside the provincial capital Ghazni, the police chief said. The bomber targeted Allahyar's vehicle, he added.

The interior ministry confirmed the incident but said a total of five people had died -- the deputy governor, his son, two of his nephews and a guard.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's bombing.

Similar attacks are often blamed on the Taliban, the Islamist militia leading an insurgency against the Western-backed government that has gained pace each year since the 2001 US-led invasion toppled the group from power.

The insurgency is at its most virulent in the south, which includes Ghazni and is the focus of a US-led strategy designed to reverse the militia's momentum to allow American forces to start drawing down from next year.

There are currently more than 152,000 NATO troops in the country, some of whom are leading a new joint push against insurgents in southern Kandahar city and surrounding areas, dubbed Operation Dragon Strike, officials said.

Dragon Strike is the latest phase of Operation Hamkari, seen as a last-ditch effort to eliminate the Taliban from Kandahar and the surrounding areas of Zhari, Panjawyi and Arghandab, long regarded as Taliban hotbeds.

"The aim of this operation is to disrupt Taliban, clean the insurgents out of villages, and expand law and order. Reconstruction projects will follow," Kandahar provincial police chief Fazil Ahmad Sherzad said on Monday.

Afghan military commanders have said the operation could take more than two months to complete, and involved two battalions of Afghan soldiers.

"We expect hard fighting," said German Brigadier General Josef Blotz, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"There have been a number of shaping operations to soften insurgent defences in preparation for the harder fighting," he said in a statement.

"Afghan and coalition forces are destroying Taliban fighting positions so they will not have anywhere left to hide."

Operation Hamkari, which means cooperation in Dari, was launched about five months ago as the United States was deploying an extra 30,000 troops, mostly to Kandahar province, in preparation for the final push against the Taliban.

The Taliban movement was launched in Kandahar province and has long considered the region its fiefdom.

[Heittman]

me autoedito

[patty]

Ataque a las tropas españolas en Ludina. Os paso la noticia

http://www.adn.es/politica/20100930/NWS ... pelen.html

[kilo009]

También han cazado a un jefe talibán en BalaMurghab encargado de montar IED's

http://www.dvidshub.net/news/57216/forc ... nt-badghis

[Loopster]

Hay mucho movimiento en la "Special Operations Task Force - West" por lo que parece... especialmente los equipos asignados al Tribal Engagement Program.