Taliban vs Coallition Forces Activity
September 2012
Seperate instances of Taliban insurgent activity occurred earlier this week in four distant locations across the country earlier this week. The more costly in terms of fatalities happened Monday in Khandahar where officials from the police headquarters faced a minor assualt by insurgent forces. The incident initiated upon detonation of an explosive device worn by a militant and appeared to be the only casuality until the event escalated into a showdown between insurgent supporters and the police force. Accounts claimed that 14 of the attackers were killed and according to a militant spokeman, "touted themselves as martyrs"
Separately on Sunday in the Helmand Province, a remote area in central Afthanistan, that has been a hideout of local mujahadeen insurgents for several years experienced a standoff between their fighters and Afghanistan security focres after an explosion detonated near a roadside. The Afghan police force had been ordered to fortify checkpoints in the region to be used as a preventitive measure against further infilitration by the enemy into the region and likewise contain the occupaton that already exists there. The remaining insurgent members of this area are mujahadeen Taliban fighters, who of those that haven't been killed are foced to secure their hideouts in these remote hinterlands, that was once a free for all of Taliban opium production. The use of the recurring IED attack methods by the enemy has been an ongoing tactic by the insurgents since the start of the conflict. The wide occurance of enemy IED usuage in the region gradually increased here as a fall off was observed in other regions. The decrease in the more populated areas is a result of succesful efforts made by the US and trained Afghan National Army in minimizing violence there. But despite strong efforts in the more desolate region of the country like Helmand Provence, hidden explosives account for a continued alarming rate of casualities among forces.
Another incident in northern Afghanistan, where twenty-five, mostly civilians, were injured resulting from a motorcycle explosive in Jowjzan, a province in the east near the Khost area. The community there has expressed a strong resentment lately as instances of civilian deaths have happened. The security threat in this area are the Haqqani members that have posed a persistant threat. However encouragement of succesful attacks on the Al Queda to commanders including that of Sakhr al-Taifi and Hassu Khel in the Warizstan Province have kept coallition fighters optimistic. President Karzi in May announced concerned remarks of casuality deaths and has asked that by next year the foces largely restrict their mission to general base operations.
As the United States and other involved countries set for a mass withdrawal by the end of 2013, continued progress needs to occur to prevent a major relapse of the efforts to secure an effective transfer of military power. Afghan National Army has continued to receive formal training in weapons tactics and strategy although some in the US military quetion what will be the outcome once US withdrawal occurs.