pakistani342
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2013
- Messages
- 3,485
- Reaction score
- 6
- Country
- Location
Summarizes findings from a newly published report.
original here excerpts below:
-----
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — The Taliban failed to capture any ground from Afghan security forces fighting for the first time without foreign firepower this fighting season, U.S. officials say, but the insurgents killed scores of soldiers, police and civilians in their campaign to weaken the government.
American and NATO officials say the fledgling army and police aren’t ready to wage a sustained war against a determined insurgency.
Coming just 13 months before most foreign forces are to withdraw, the mixed results reported by U.S. military officials underline the unresolved question of whether some of those forces should stay.
The assessment adds urgency to the need for the U.S. and Afghanistan to sign a much-delayed security agreement that will allow a residual foreign force to stay on after the Dec. 31, 2014 withdrawal deadline.
....
Holding territory came at a high price. Coalition officials say Afghan forces were at one point losing 100 men a week, mostly from roadside bombs.
The Afghans’ weakness, say military officials, is logistics — they have trouble with the upkeep of vehicles and other crucial equipment supplied by the West.
...
In April, the Taliban declared an ambitious campaign named after Khalid ibn al-Walid, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, to retake territory and go on killing foreign troops and government workers.
“The Khalid ibn al-Walid operation ... has completely failed,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi.
Army losses were not disclosed, but Gen. Mohammad Salim Assas, who leads the Interior Ministry’s police forces, said last week that 1,273 national police, 770 village police and 556 Afghan civilians were killed during the fighting season from the beginning of March to Oct. 25.
Assas said 2,168 insurgents were killed in nearly 2,000 security operations.
He said insurgents mounted 6,604 attacks in 30 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces during that period, including 50 suicide bombings, 1,704 shootings and shellings, 1,186 bombings and 920 ambushes.
___
original here excerpts below:
-----
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — The Taliban failed to capture any ground from Afghan security forces fighting for the first time without foreign firepower this fighting season, U.S. officials say, but the insurgents killed scores of soldiers, police and civilians in their campaign to weaken the government.
American and NATO officials say the fledgling army and police aren’t ready to wage a sustained war against a determined insurgency.
Coming just 13 months before most foreign forces are to withdraw, the mixed results reported by U.S. military officials underline the unresolved question of whether some of those forces should stay.
The assessment adds urgency to the need for the U.S. and Afghanistan to sign a much-delayed security agreement that will allow a residual foreign force to stay on after the Dec. 31, 2014 withdrawal deadline.
....
Holding territory came at a high price. Coalition officials say Afghan forces were at one point losing 100 men a week, mostly from roadside bombs.
The Afghans’ weakness, say military officials, is logistics — they have trouble with the upkeep of vehicles and other crucial equipment supplied by the West.
...
In April, the Taliban declared an ambitious campaign named after Khalid ibn al-Walid, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, to retake territory and go on killing foreign troops and government workers.
“The Khalid ibn al-Walid operation ... has completely failed,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi.
Army losses were not disclosed, but Gen. Mohammad Salim Assas, who leads the Interior Ministry’s police forces, said last week that 1,273 national police, 770 village police and 556 Afghan civilians were killed during the fighting season from the beginning of March to Oct. 25.
Assas said 2,168 insurgents were killed in nearly 2,000 security operations.
He said insurgents mounted 6,604 attacks in 30 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces during that period, including 50 suicide bombings, 1,704 shootings and shellings, 1,186 bombings and 920 ambushes.
___
