Special Report:US Army Green Berets,Afghan Special Forces Killed in Joint NATO-Afghan Raid

Early on Thursday,3 November 2016,five Special Operations Forces members,including two US Army Green Berets and three Afghan Special Forces members,died in heavy combat with Taliban militants in Kunduz Province,Northern Afghanistan.The joint NATO-Afghan counterterror raid targeted senior Taliban commanders.It ended when airstrikes by both Afghan and then,when the Afghans did not succeed by themselves,NATO aircraft,were called in to rescue friendly forces surrounded by enemy fire,according to the Afghan Defence Ministry.*
Killed in the battle were Captain Andrew D. Byers,30,of Rolesville,North Carolina and Sergeant First Class Ryan A. Gloyer,34,of Greenville,Pennsylvania.CAPT Byers and SGT Gloyer were assigned to 2nd Battalion,10th Special Forces Group(Airborne),Fort Carson,Colorado.The 10th Special Forces Group(Airborne) conducts combat,unconventional warfare,special reconnaissance and foreign internal defence missions focused mainly in the US European Command Area of Responsibility.Since 9-11,they have seen action in both the Afghan and Iraq Wars,as well as service in Africa.*
Reports of up to 24 civilians being killed in the battle are being investigated by the US State Department.The Kunduz Provincial Police said the Islamist extremist Taliban took refuge in civilian homes in the village of Buze Kandahari,where the battle was concentrated,using them as human shields.Buze Kandahari is near Kunduz city,a frequent flash point in the 15 year-long conflict.

Special Report:Fighting Flares Again in the Afghan North - critical city threatened

Taliban militants launched a pre-dawn multi-pronged attack on Khanabad district of Kunduz Province in Northern Afghanistan,seizing control of the district and threatening the provincial capital Kunduz city.This comes less than a year after Afghan National Defence and Security Forces,backed by US airpower and NATO special operations forces,who secured the international airport as a haven for government officials,drove the Taliban back from the strategically located city,a regional transport centre for the Afghan north,in heavy combat last September.*
A lack of sufficient ammunition and manpower were being cited to explain the defeat.
We resisted for hours,but we received no support,complained Khanabad district administrator Hayatullah Ramiri to Reuters.According to the Associated Press,the Islamist extremists also confiscated weapons and military vehicles during their rampage.Civilians were seen fleeing the district.Other reports from Kunduz city say some government officials wasted no time in once again seeking refuge at the international airport when clashes approached the city gates.*
Kunduz city was a militant stronghold prior to the US invasion of Afghanistan following the 9-11 attacks.In their attempt to recapture the city last year,the Taliban freed more than 600 prisoners from the Kunduz jail,including almost 150 militants.*
Even as the battle for Kunduz Province re-erupts,fighting is also intense in Helmand Province in the south and Nangarhar Province in the east of Afghanistan;while the Taliban had seized yet another district in the north of the country,in Baghlan Province just to the south of Kunduz,less than a week ago.
Update:Fighting continued in Khanabad district of Kunduz Province,Afghanistan on Sunday after the Taliban Islamist extremist group captured it on Saturday,although a provincial government spokesman said that the ANDSF had retaken the centre of Khanabad.The spokesman said 38 Taliban militants had been killed in the battle so far.The Taliban were reportedly hanging on in other parts of the district,which is about 30 kilometers east of the provincial capital,Kunduz city.Nationwide,significant swathes-perhaps at least 10 to 20% of Afghanistan's territory-is either under Taliban control now or being contested by them.

Afghan War:General Recommends Against President's Plan

General John F. Campbell,US Army,commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan,testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee today in one of his periodic briefings on the war to US lawmakers.Soon the Obama administration must decide whether to stick to the President's current plan of a drastically reduced US military presence after 2016 or not.
Based on conditions on the ground,I do believe we have to provide our senior leadership with options different from the current plan-absolutely,GEN Campbell said.The courses of action I have provided provide options to adjust that.We're not going to put options forward that wouldn't lead to success.Presence means influence.*
The Afghans and coalition were surprised when the Taliban were able to take Kunduz.They were able to come in and take over from within the city.Mostly police were defending Kunduz when the Taliban attacked.There are small isolated pockets that continue to fight.I don't think the Taliban intended to stay.They melted away when the Afghan National Army arrived.*
Logistics and sustainment are hard for the Afghan National Army-they are hard even for the US Army.As for their air force,they have two functioning Mi-35 attack helicopters.They have several Mi-17 helicopters.Close air support helicopters are a key gap.We got a late start on their air force.*
To conduct counterterrorism effectively,it would have to be outside of Kabul,not from the US embassy.The current plan reduces the US military presence to 1,000 troops based at the embassy in Kabul by the end of 2016.*
I do not see the same ethnic infighting I saw in Iraq.In Northern Helmand Province,the ANDSF had some issues,but they took Musa Qala and Kunduz back.Afghans are fighters,and,sir,they're warriors.Without a doubt,they deserve US and NATO support.*
We knew this fighting season was going to be tough because this was going to be the first year the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces were on their own.The ADNSF actually started the fighting season in February.There was no lull.The ANDSF didn't have time to regroup over the winter as they previously had.*
Up in Nangarhar Province,we've see the rise of Daesh (the Arab term for ISIL).They want to expand into Khorasan Province and set up Jalalabad as their capital.You see a lot of the TTP,the Pakistani Taliban,go over to Daesh,as well as disaffected Afghan Taliban members.It's a change of tee shirt.Iran is providing money and weapons to the Taliban-mostly in the West and Herat area-to fight Daesh.*
I am comfortable with the resources I have to provide force protection for the US and NATO forces I have.*
The Haqqani Network faction of the Taliban in Pakistan is responsible for the VBIEDs,or vehicle-borne IEDs-as well as the suicide vests and attacks on civilians.We've got to continue to keep the pressure on Pakistan to stop them,GEN Campbell told the senators.*

Taliban Still Striving To Conquer Kunduz,Despite an Overnight Setback - launch new offensive in Badakhsan Province

Heavy fighting for control of Kunduz,Afghanistan continued overnight Wednesday,with Afghan National Defence and Security Forces retaking the city centre,assisted by their NATO advisors.Combat operations continued on Thursday,however,with the Taliban reportedly still controlling certain government buildings outside the city centre.NATO troops were photographed in Kunduz during the day Thursday riding in the back of a truck.It isn't known if the NATO forces got into anymore firefights with the Taliban as they did Wednesday morning near the airport,but heavy US airstrikes were reported overnight by Kunduz residents.At least five US airstrikes have been carried out in support of the ANDSF.*
Some city residents witnessed a Taliban counterattack on Thursday,as the militants rode into town in stolen vehicles wearing ANDSF uniforms.These jihadists in disguise were said to have pushed at least some of the Afghan troops back to the city's outskirts.
The Taliban looted banks and commandeered several military and civilian vehicles and weapons when they seized Kunduz early Monday,so could conceivably sustain their mission for some time.*
The importance of this battle is underscored by NATO's firm,swift response,sending special forces to the front lines and even engaging the enemy in ground combat as needed,as well as providing close air support.The whole scenario being played out in Kunduz calls into question President Barack Obama's plan to withdraw almost all US troops by the end of 2016.Afghanistan Chief Executive Dr.Abdullah Abdullah told Reuters that,as far as I understand,the views of those US Army generals and officers on the ground in Afghanistan,as well as our own security and military leadership,is that maintaining a level of force beyond 2016 is necessary.
Update:By Friday morning,ANDSF were going house to house in Kunduz,seeking Taliban holdouts who are using civilians as human shields.One resident reported that other militants were firing at people indiscriminately from tall buildings.Overall,the city was back under Afghan control with scattered pockets of resistance remaining and residents still sheltering in their homes.
The NATO contingent of US,British,German and Dutch troops are based at the airport just outside the city with the ANDSF,should any further help be needed.
The Taliban are being accused by Amnesty International and the Afghan government of having committed war crimes during their Kunduz occupation,including rape,torture and extrajudicial execution.The Islamist extremists were targeting women in particular,enlisting young boys to help them find residents on their hit list.
Meanwhile,the Taliban have expanded their offensive in the North by swarming Warduj district in Badakhsan Province.The militants overwhelmed multiple checkpoints in district villages,achieving supremacy by the end of day Friday,with the police headquarters falling at about 6 pm local time.
The district borders Tajikistan,Pakistan and China.

Bulletin:NATO Special Forces Battle Taliban Near Kunduz,Afghanistan

An undisclosed number of NATO troops were sent to Kunduz to support Afghanistan in a non-combat role.That said,they also maintain the right to defend themselves.Early Wednesday morning,coalition special forces advisors,while advising and assisting elements of the Afghan security forces,encountered an insurgent threat in the vicinity of Kunduz airport at approximately 1:00 am,30 September,according to Colonel Brian Tribus,US Army,spokesman for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.This was done out of self-defence.When they encountered the threat,they defended themselves.The NATO troops also called in a third airstrike on the Taliban,COL Tribus said.*
An anonymous senior Afghan security official said that about 100 US special forces,heavily armed and wearing night vision equipment,had fought off the Taliban when they threatened to breach the airport,where a large number of Afghan National Defence and Security Forces are holding out.The US troops returned to the airport following the engagement.*
A Western military source,also anonymous,said the NATO contingent sent to advise and assist the ANDSF in Kunduz included US,British and German troops,although the German government said their forces withdrew the same day they arrived.

Afghan War:Provincial Capital Falls To Taliban - US air support sent in

In the pre-dawn hours of Monday,hundreds of Taliban militants and foreign fighters from as far afield as China and Central Asia streamed into the provincial capital of Kunduz in the far north of Afghanistan,apparently facing little resistance from the NATO-trained Afghan National Defence and Security Forces.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the ANDSF were being restrained to avoid civilian casualties.The Taliban have been using civilians as human shields,Mr.Ghani explained.The assault came from all directions,taking the ANDSF and local officials by surprise.
President Ghani said the ANDSF mounted a counterattack,retakng some government buildings including the new police headquarters and the prison.
Initially,the militants had liberated as many as 6oo prisoners from the Kunduz prison,several of them Taliban fighters.They also captured a TV station and took the central square of the capital of Kunduz Province,raising their flag,and setting up checkpoints to seal the city off.It was an unprecedented victory for the Islamist extremists in their nearly 14 year-long war with Afghan and NATO forces,the first provincial capital they have managed to seize,and is a statement by their new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour,who replaced Mullah Omar following the latter's death in a Pakistan hospital two years ago.*
There are no US troops in the area,but German soldiers control a major base in nearby Mazar-i-Sharif.The Taliban have made the north a focus of this fighting season,and control large swaths of it.The ANDSF have been stretched to the limit trying to resist the Taliban,largely without NATO ground forces to help them since December 2014.The US does provide some counterterrorist troops and occasional air support,as they provided for the ANDSF on Tuesday.Colonel Brian Tribus,spokesman for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan,said the US airstrike was to eliminate a threat to coalition and Afghan forces in the area.US F-16 aircraft struck Taliban positions on the outskirts of the city.The militants had carried out an ambush on ANDSF,placed IEDs and cut power lines.They also destroyed parts of a key artery from Kabul,the Baghlan-Kunduz highway,blocking ANDSF reinforcements from arriving.On Tuesday evening,heavy fighting erupted when they attacked the airport that ANDSF and officials had fallen back to.*
Speaking at the UN in New York,Afghan Chief Executive Dr.Abdullah Abdullah said the presence of terrorist sanctuaries and support networks in neighbouring Pakistan continue to cause trouble in Afghanistan.Militants cross into Afghanistan and indiscriminately victimise our citizens.*
Kunduz Province borders the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan.
Update:Tuesday night,the US conducted a second airstrike in Kunduz.Taliban positions near the airport were struck.