Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis,USN,announced that two US Special Operations Forces members were killed in action overnight in Nangarhar Province of Eastern Afghanistan.A third US Soldier was wounded but is expected to survive.They were on a raid with Afghan National Defence and Security Forces members in a village near Achin district.The area has been a hotbed of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan militants,who have been posing a threat to US and ANDSF Soldiers operating in the area.*
ISIL refers to Nangarhar as Khorasan Province.*
The battleground was in the same area where US Army Staff Sergeant Mark R DeAlencar was killed in action on a similar raid on 8 April,just over two weeks ago.In response,the US dropped a Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb,or MOAB,formally designated the GBU-43.The 11-tonne weapon was targeted at a complex of ISIL-K tunnels in Achin district,and killed between 36-100 of the Islamist extremists,by Afghan estimates.The US has yet to disclose any bomb damage assessment.*
The American deaths came after a long day of fighting,according to an Afghan military official.US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had recently made a secret visit to the Afghan capital Kabul to discuss the deteriorating security situation in the country with President Ashraf Ghani and other Afghan leaders.Commander of all US and NATO forces in Afghanistan General John Nicholson,US Army,has told Congress that,in fact,a few thousand more troops are needed for train,advise and assist,as well as counterterrorism operations,in the beleaguered nation,in addition to the 8400 US service members currently serving there and about 5,000 from other NATO and partner nations.GEN Nicholson wants to drive ISIL-K out of Afghanistan by the end of 2017 because it is important for the world,which would leave the Taliban and remnant al-Qaida forces to deal with.
Mr.Mattis has yet to make a recommendation on Afghanistan to President Donald Trump.
Showing posts with label President Ashraf Ghani. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Ashraf Ghani. Show all posts
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
The Afghan War:Mattis Scouts the Way Ahead for NATO
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis,as he prefers being called,spoke with reporters yesterday in Abu Dhabi,UAE:
We anticipated that we might not be able to get into Afghanistan due to weather.We got the weather report yesterday.I was fortunate yesterday,before we left Munich,to speak with Afghan President Ghani at length.We were both there,and we took advantage of that opportunity,knowing I might not be able to see him today as we initially planned.I had a very in-depth discussion about the way ahead in Afghanistan.
And then I spoke by picture-video teleconference-with our NATO commander in the field,General Nicholson,and that went on for several hours,and this is all part of my getting my feet on the deck in terms of getting current on the situation that the coalition forces in Afghanistan face,both politically and strategically,and identifying the way ahead.*
On the situation in Afghanistan right now,again,my point in talking to President Ghani and talking to our field commander,the NATO field commander,is to gain their political and military appreciation of the situation.We're putting our thoughts together now.*
President Trump has been rightly reticent on it,because he's waiting for my assessment and the assessment from the intelligence community.And he's open to my advice on it;but first of all,I've got to formulate where I stand,and so this is the normal collection of the information,and to assess what other countries in the region are doing to help or hinder our efforts there.So we're still sorting that out and here shortly I'll have my thoughts collected.It shouldn't take too long;but I've got a fair number of issues in order to give a good recommendation for the way ahead.*
So I think it was a lot more damaging to the Taliban,and the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces paid a very heavy price to keep the Taliban on their back foot,but they paid it;they've held;and the Taliban is in a worse position today,even though I do not equate that to success on our side.*
I would not in any way contest it has been a hard fight all the way through.I think that's a very accurate point.I would question who came out on the shorter end of the stick.Right now I'd rather be on NATO's-be in NATO's position right now than I would want to be in the Taliban's,the retired US Marine Corps general and new Defense Secretary Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis told the journalists in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
We anticipated that we might not be able to get into Afghanistan due to weather.We got the weather report yesterday.I was fortunate yesterday,before we left Munich,to speak with Afghan President Ghani at length.We were both there,and we took advantage of that opportunity,knowing I might not be able to see him today as we initially planned.I had a very in-depth discussion about the way ahead in Afghanistan.
And then I spoke by picture-video teleconference-with our NATO commander in the field,General Nicholson,and that went on for several hours,and this is all part of my getting my feet on the deck in terms of getting current on the situation that the coalition forces in Afghanistan face,both politically and strategically,and identifying the way ahead.*
On the situation in Afghanistan right now,again,my point in talking to President Ghani and talking to our field commander,the NATO field commander,is to gain their political and military appreciation of the situation.We're putting our thoughts together now.*
President Trump has been rightly reticent on it,because he's waiting for my assessment and the assessment from the intelligence community.And he's open to my advice on it;but first of all,I've got to formulate where I stand,and so this is the normal collection of the information,and to assess what other countries in the region are doing to help or hinder our efforts there.So we're still sorting that out and here shortly I'll have my thoughts collected.It shouldn't take too long;but I've got a fair number of issues in order to give a good recommendation for the way ahead.*
So I think it was a lot more damaging to the Taliban,and the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces paid a very heavy price to keep the Taliban on their back foot,but they paid it;they've held;and the Taliban is in a worse position today,even though I do not equate that to success on our side.*
I would not in any way contest it has been a hard fight all the way through.I think that's a very accurate point.I would question who came out on the shorter end of the stick.Right now I'd rather be on NATO's-be in NATO's position right now than I would want to be in the Taliban's,the retired US Marine Corps general and new Defense Secretary Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis told the journalists in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Brazen Attacks Rock Kabul,Afghanistan - Green Beret killed
Taliban militants penetrated the outer perimeter of Camp Integrity,a NATO base in Kabul,Afghanistan and HQ for the US Army Green Berets.The intruders detonated a bomb and engaged in a firefight with security forces,killing a decorated Green Beret,Master Sergeant Peter Andrew McKenna,35,of the 1st Battalion,7th Special Forces Group,with small arms fire.MSGT McKenna,of Bristol,Rhode Island,was a 17-year Army veteran who had served in Iraq as well,receiving a Bronze Star with V device for heroism in combat operations,as well as the Meritorious Service Medal and Army Commendation Medal.On Independence Day,he was presented with a flag that had flown over the US Capitol by Senator Jack Reed,D-Rhode Island.*
The Taliban assault was part of a wave of terrorist attacks last Friday through Monday in the Afghan capital Kabul.Two other US troops were wounded in the Camp Integrity attack.Eight Afghan contractors and four militants also died in the battle,which was within hours of an attack on the police academy in Kabul,in which 20 cadets were killed and 24 others wounded at he academy gates.
In yet another incident Friday,a truck bomb devastated an entire city block of the Kabul residential neighbourhood Shah Shaheed,killing 15 and wounding 240 more.On Monday,a vehicle-borne IED hit a crowded entrance to Kabul International Airport,killing at least 5 and wounding 16 others.Over the four-day period,almost 70 were killed and hundreds wounded by the Islamist extremists.*
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani complained that the Pakistanis failed to prevent the Taliban from congregating and planning the attacks in Quetta,Pakistan.They elected and installed their new leader there,Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour,whose predecessor,Mullah Omar,had died in a Pakistani hospital 2 years ago.
The current fighting has seen heavy clashes between the Afghan National Security Forces,supported by their NATO trainers,advisors and US counter-terrorist forces,and the Taliban.
The Taliban assault was part of a wave of terrorist attacks last Friday through Monday in the Afghan capital Kabul.Two other US troops were wounded in the Camp Integrity attack.Eight Afghan contractors and four militants also died in the battle,which was within hours of an attack on the police academy in Kabul,in which 20 cadets were killed and 24 others wounded at he academy gates.
In yet another incident Friday,a truck bomb devastated an entire city block of the Kabul residential neighbourhood Shah Shaheed,killing 15 and wounding 240 more.On Monday,a vehicle-borne IED hit a crowded entrance to Kabul International Airport,killing at least 5 and wounding 16 others.Over the four-day period,almost 70 were killed and hundreds wounded by the Islamist extremists.*
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani complained that the Pakistanis failed to prevent the Taliban from congregating and planning the attacks in Quetta,Pakistan.They elected and installed their new leader there,Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour,whose predecessor,Mullah Omar,had died in a Pakistani hospital 2 years ago.
The current fighting has seen heavy clashes between the Afghan National Security Forces,supported by their NATO trainers,advisors and US counter-terrorist forces,and the Taliban.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
How Much Does ISIL Threaten Afghanistan?-plus where the A-29 aircraft fits in
We have seen some ISIL recruiting in different parts of the country,General John Campbell,US Army,operations commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan,told the House Armed Services Committee.We have seen some night letter drops by ISIL.The dynamics in Afghanistan are not the same as in Iraq.We will see it and we will continue to monitor it,and we have a strategy for the short,medium and long-term.The senior leadership in the Afghan army and police have told me that they will not let ISIL do what they did in Iraq and Syria.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani wants to make sure his intelligence forces are keeping a close watch.He gets several security updates a day.I think they view ISIL as a potential threat and make sure that they have a strategy.Intel drives ops,and that's what we try to instil in our Afghan partners.Intel is one of the eight essential functions that we continue to build at all the ministry levels.I take a look at the conditions on the ground.I do believe the best thing we can do is continue to build their close air support and special forces.
Less than 10% of the Afghan people embrace the Taliban militants.The people are plain and simple just tired of this,of the Taliban and what they represent.That's different from the way it was just a few years ago.*
Asked by Representative Jackie Walorski,R-Indiana,what the Plan B was,the plan for if things go awry in Afghanistan,GEN Campbell requested to reply in a closed session or by letter.*
If things go awry,GEN Campbell continued in open session,our plan for re-engagement,our goal really is to build the Afghan capacity.The Taliban and their message is not having any traction with the Afghan people.It's time for the Taliban to become part of the process.I think that's really where we're going with the Taliban.
The first thing I always get asked for is close air support.Once we get their close air,intel,sustainment and medical,I'd feel better.On my Priority Intelligence Requirements,I said I need to know more about ISIL,and that's why I made it a PIR.It could grow very rapidly.It is a nascent organisation.It grew very quickly in Iraq and Syria.It has the potential to jump developmental stages.
I want to make sure what assurances I have that released detainees will not attack our forces again.I want to be tied in with that.Eighty-five percent of the people in Kabul feel comfortable with a coalition presence,and want to have it around.The Afghans do have indirect fire-they have mortars and Howitzers,but they're looking forward to the A-29 aircraft.*
The A-29 Super Tucano Embraer EMB 314 turboprop is for light attack,counter-insurgency,close air support and reconnaissance in low threat environments,as well as being for advanced training.It is designed for austere environments with conditions such as high temperatures and humidity in extremely rugged terrain.The popular aircraft is highly maneuverable,has a low heat signature,fourth generation avionics and weapons systems to deliver precision guided munitions.With a speed of 368.47 miles per hour and a range of 2995 miles,it is currently in service with the air forces of Brazil,Columbia,Chile,Indonesia and the Philippines.The US Air Force has ordered 20 of them for training and equipping the Afghan air force.The first of the Tucanos arrived at Moody Air Force Base,Georgia on 26 September 2014.A few more will be delivered from December 2015 into 2016;but most will arrive from 2017-18,according to GEN Campbell.They will replace the Afghans' Mi-35 helicopters and expand their mission sets.A total of 30 Afghan pilots and 90 maintainers will be trained at Moody AFB with the assistance of contract personnel from Sierra Nevada Corporation.*
The complexity of the world we live in is a generational piece that we will have long after you and I have left,GEN Campbell reflected.I do see Afghanistan as a place that can be the bright spot for very little continued investment.Afghanistan can be the shining light of Central Asia.For every suicide vest that goes off in Kabul,there are 10 more that are stopped.*
Embraer SA (ERJ)
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani wants to make sure his intelligence forces are keeping a close watch.He gets several security updates a day.I think they view ISIL as a potential threat and make sure that they have a strategy.Intel drives ops,and that's what we try to instil in our Afghan partners.Intel is one of the eight essential functions that we continue to build at all the ministry levels.I take a look at the conditions on the ground.I do believe the best thing we can do is continue to build their close air support and special forces.
Less than 10% of the Afghan people embrace the Taliban militants.The people are plain and simple just tired of this,of the Taliban and what they represent.That's different from the way it was just a few years ago.*
Asked by Representative Jackie Walorski,R-Indiana,what the Plan B was,the plan for if things go awry in Afghanistan,GEN Campbell requested to reply in a closed session or by letter.*
If things go awry,GEN Campbell continued in open session,our plan for re-engagement,our goal really is to build the Afghan capacity.The Taliban and their message is not having any traction with the Afghan people.It's time for the Taliban to become part of the process.I think that's really where we're going with the Taliban.
The first thing I always get asked for is close air support.Once we get their close air,intel,sustainment and medical,I'd feel better.On my Priority Intelligence Requirements,I said I need to know more about ISIL,and that's why I made it a PIR.It could grow very rapidly.It is a nascent organisation.It grew very quickly in Iraq and Syria.It has the potential to jump developmental stages.
I want to make sure what assurances I have that released detainees will not attack our forces again.I want to be tied in with that.Eighty-five percent of the people in Kabul feel comfortable with a coalition presence,and want to have it around.The Afghans do have indirect fire-they have mortars and Howitzers,but they're looking forward to the A-29 aircraft.*
The A-29 Super Tucano Embraer EMB 314 turboprop is for light attack,counter-insurgency,close air support and reconnaissance in low threat environments,as well as being for advanced training.It is designed for austere environments with conditions such as high temperatures and humidity in extremely rugged terrain.The popular aircraft is highly maneuverable,has a low heat signature,fourth generation avionics and weapons systems to deliver precision guided munitions.With a speed of 368.47 miles per hour and a range of 2995 miles,it is currently in service with the air forces of Brazil,Columbia,Chile,Indonesia and the Philippines.The US Air Force has ordered 20 of them for training and equipping the Afghan air force.The first of the Tucanos arrived at Moody Air Force Base,Georgia on 26 September 2014.A few more will be delivered from December 2015 into 2016;but most will arrive from 2017-18,according to GEN Campbell.They will replace the Afghans' Mi-35 helicopters and expand their mission sets.A total of 30 Afghan pilots and 90 maintainers will be trained at Moody AFB with the assistance of contract personnel from Sierra Nevada Corporation.*
The complexity of the world we live in is a generational piece that we will have long after you and I have left,GEN Campbell reflected.I do see Afghanistan as a place that can be the bright spot for very little continued investment.Afghanistan can be the shining light of Central Asia.For every suicide vest that goes off in Kabul,there are 10 more that are stopped.*
Embraer SA (ERJ)
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