US, NATO set to launch massive assault against Taliban-led militants

[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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A U.S. Marine engineer, searching for improvised explosive devises, stops as an Afghan villager emerges to look at him in Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Sunday Feb. 14, 2010.
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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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An Afghan man waits to weigh people for money in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010.
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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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A female British soldier keeps a vigil on a rooftop of a house in the village Qari Sahib, Nad Ali district, Helmend province, southern Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010.
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A U.S. Marine from Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines runs during a heavy gun battle in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district of Helmand province February 14, 2010. A U.S. Marine company position came under intense fire from all sides on Sunday, at a building where an Afghan flag had been raised to mark progress in a NATO offensive against a Taliban stronghold.
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Corporal Paul Whibley of 28 Engineer Regiment from Kent in England points his weapon whilst on patrol in northern Nad Ali February 14, 2010.
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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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In this photo released by Britain's Ministry of Defense, a member of the F Company (Fire Support) 1 Royal Welsh takes a retina image of an Afghan during operation 'Moshtarak' Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010, near Marjah, in Afghanistan's Helmand province. British troops are among the thousands of NATO and Afghan soldiers who stormed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah by air and ground Saturday.
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In this photo released by Britain's Ministry of Defense, members of the F Company (Fire Support) 1 Royal Welsh take position during operation 'Moshtarak' Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010, near Marjah, in Afghanistan's Helmand province.
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In this photo released by Britain's Ministry of Defense, members of the F Company (Fire Support) 1 Royal Welsh take position during operation 'Moshtarak' Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010, near Marjah, in Afghanistan's Helmand province.
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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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In this photo released by Britain's Ministry of Defense, a member of the F Company (Fire Support) 1 Royal Welsh takes position during operation 'Moshtarak' Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010, near Marjah, in Afghanistan's Helmand province.
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A sniper with US Marines 1/3 Charlie company takes position on a rooftop on the northeast of Marjah. Thousands of US-led troops backed by helicopters Saturday stormed an Islamist stronghold in southern Afghanistan in NATO's biggest operation since the Taliban regime's overthrow in late 2001.
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US Marines with 1/3 Charlie company man a TOW missile launcher as smike billows from an unidentified explosion in the northeast of Marjah. Thousands of US-led troops backed by helicopters Saturday stormed an Islamist stronghold in southern Afghanistan in NATO's biggest operation since the Taliban regime's overthrow in late 2001.
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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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U.S. Army flight medic Sgt. Michael G. Patangan, right, from Houston, Texas, and fellow flight medic Sgt. Bryan Eickelberg, of Arden Hills, Minn., center, hand off to Navy field hospital medics two of three wounded Taliban fighters, who were captured after a firefight in Marjah, according to the Marines on the ground, upon arrival to a forward operating base in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010. The third captured man, pictured at left, is being frisked by a Marine MP. Aero-medical crews of Task Force Pegasus are positioned throughout southern Afghanistan.
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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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U.S. Marines point their rifles, scanning for Taliban fighters as they cover the departure of a U.S. Army Pegasus medevac helicopter which picked up a wounded Marine from their unit, in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010. U.S. Army Task Force Pegasus aero-medical crews are are supporting U.S. Marines who are taking the Taliban-held town of Marjah in a major offensive to break the extremists' grip over their southern heartland and re-establish government control.
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Taliban fighters are airborne in a Black hawk helicopter on a U.S. Army medevac mission, as flight medics attend to two wounded Taliban fighters captured after a firefight, according to the Marines on the ground, over Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010. Aero-medical crews of Task Force Pegasus are positioned throughout southern Afghanistan.
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Airborne in a Black hawk helicopter on a U.S. Army medevac misssion, a Marine MP, left, guards a Taliban fighter who is wounded, along with two other seriously wounded Taliban fighters captured after a firefight, according to the Marines on the ground, over Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010. Aero-medical crews of Task Force Pegasus are positioned throughout southern Afghanistan.
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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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Injured Taliban fighters receive medical treatment after they were captured, aboard a Black hawk helicopter on a medevac mission, U.S. Army flight medic Sgt. Michael G. Patangan, left, from Houston, Texas, with Charlie Company, Task Force Talon, as they try to keep the fighters alive after a firefight, according to the Marines on the ground, airborne over Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010.

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Injured Taliban fighters receive medical treatment after they were captured, aboard an a Black hawk helicopter on a medevac mission, with U.S. Army flight medic Sgt. Michael G. Patangan, left, from Houston, Texas, and fellow flight medic Sgt. Bryan Eickelberg, of Arden Hills, Minn., as they try to keep alive of two of three wounded Taliban fighters captured after a firefight, according to the Marines on the ground, over Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010. The third is pictured at left and being guarded by a Marine MP, not pictured. Aero-medical crews of Task Force Pegasus are positioned throughout southern Afghanistan.
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U.S. Army flight medic Sgt. Michael G. Patangan, right, from Houston, Texas, with Charlie Company, Task Force Talon, and U.S. Marines, carry one of three wounded Taliban fighters captured after a firefight, according to the Marines on the ground, in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010.
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Map locates Marjah in Helmand province, Afghanistan, where a U.S./Afghan offensive against Taliban militants is underway with satellite imagery of area

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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment and Marine engineers make camp for the night in a room at a gas station after entering the town of Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Saturday Feb. 13, 2010.
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U.S. Army flight medic Staff Sgt. Robert B. Cowdrey, of La Junta, Colo., right, with Charlie Company, All American Dustoff, evacuates a U.S. Marine wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack, in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010.
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Airborne in a Black Hawk medevac helicopter, U.S. Army flight medic Staff Sgt. Robert B. Cowdrey, of La Junta, Colo., right, with Charlie Company, All American Dustoff, talks with a Marine wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack, as Crew Chief Spc. Timothy Johns, of Mitchell, S.D., assists at left, over Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010.
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US Marines battle Taliban in Marjah on February 12.

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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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US-led troops helicoptered into Marjah in the poppy-growing belt of Helmand province in the biggest military operation in Afghanistan since US President Barack Obama ordered a troop surge. Images of US marines with 1/3 Charlie Company engaging with the Taliban northeast of Marjah. Duration: 01:12.
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US marines take aim during a battle against the Taliban in Marjah on February 12.
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Map shows area of U.S./Afghan offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan with a breakdown of troops involved

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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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U.S. Marines from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, take a break in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010.
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A U.S. Marine from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, takes aim during a gun battle in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010.
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A U.S. Marine from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines gestures during a gun battle in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010.
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A U.S. Marine from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, takes aim as he tries to protect an Afghan man and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

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A U.S. Marine from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, gestures as he tries to protect an Afghan man and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010

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U.S. Marines from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, protect an Afghan man and his child after Taliban fighters opened fire in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, February 13, 2010.

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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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A U.S. Marine from Bravo Company of 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, gestures during a gun battle in the town of Marjah, in Nad Ali district of Helmand province, February 13, 2010. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

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U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment react as an improvised explosive device is found and detonated by Marine engineers as they try to enter the city of Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010.
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An elderly Afghan man looks out from his home as U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment search his area of Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010.
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An Afghan family takes their belongings and leaves their home as U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment enter Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010.
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U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment walk in a column as they enter Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010.
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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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Afghan policemen ride a pickup truck in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010. Security has a visible presence in Kabul, as some thousands of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers stormed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah before dawn Saturday, in an offensive into the biggest southern Afghan town under militant control, aimed at breaking the Taliban grip over a wide area of their southern heartland.
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Smoke rises from a hellfire missile strike as U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment make their way to enter Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010.
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A U.S. military helicopter hovers over the site of a suicide attack in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010.
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Canadian soldiers patrol near the site of a suicide attack in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010. Afghan National Army Maj. Abdul Rahman says international troops were killed when suicide bomber on a motorbike targeted a joint foot patrol of Afghan and U.S. soldiers in Kandahar province, which lies next to Helmand.
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U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment carry a bridge to set up across a canal as they enter Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010.
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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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A six year-old Afghan girl, injured in crossfire between insurgents and US Marines on the outskirts of Marjah, is treated at a field hospital as her father (left) who carried her in search of help looks on.
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A playing card decorates a US mortar barrel as Marines battle with Taliban forces on the North East of Marjah in Afghanistan.

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A US Marine prepares to fire a mortar round as US forces battle Taliban resistance in the North East of Marjah on February 11.

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Brigadier James Cowan, Commander 11 Light Brigade, commander of British forces in southern Afghanistan (C), Brigadier General Moyaiyodin Ghori Commanding Officer 3rd Brigade Afghan National Army (L) and Colonel Shirin Shah ANCOP brief troops and members of the media about Operation Moshtarak at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan February 11, 2010.

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Corporal Lino Woolf, 24-years-old from Weymouth, keeps a firm grasp of his search dog before being mobilised for Operation Moshtarak, a combined force of 15,000 troops launching major assaults on Taliban strongholds in Helmand Province, at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan February 13, 2010.

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[Ginchiyo Tachibana]

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US Marines check their equipment in Toor Ghar, Helmand province on February 8. Militants have spent recent weeks building their numbers and lacing the area with hidden improvised explosive devises, or IEDs, which Western military planners say will be their biggest challenge as an all-out assault on isurgent strongholds proceeds.
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Graphic on Afghanistan's Helmand province, ahead of a major assault against Taliban militants. US-led troops have dropped leaflets and broadcast radio messages warning Afghans not to shelter the Taliban as they prepared to assault a bastion of the insurgency.
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France's Prime Minister Francois Fillon sits in an armoured vehicle during a visit to Tagab, in the valley of Kapisa, February 11, 2010. Fillon is in Afghanistan on a visit to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the French soldiers fighting Taliban. Picture taken February 11, 2010. REUTERS/Mehdi Fedouach/Pool

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French soldiers patrol the mountains of the valley of Kapica during a visit by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon in Tagab, in the valley of Kapisa, February 11, 2010. Fillon is in Afghanistan on a visit to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the French soldiers fighting Taliban. Picture taken February 11, 2010.
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Afghan soldiers undergo basic military training instructed by Turkish officers at Camp Anadolu military training center in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010.

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[yellow people]

US : Taliban Military Leader Captured In Raid


US : Taliban Military Leader Captured In Raid

James Jordan

The top Taliban military chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has been captured in Pakistan, US officials say.Residents search for victims a day after a suicide bomb attack in Shah Hasan Khan in Bannu district, bordering the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan. Mullah Baradar, who is effectively the second in command of the Taliban, was captured in a joint operation between the Pakistani intelligence agency, known as the ISI, and the CIA. The raid took place several days ago in the city of Karachi. But a Taliban spokesman denied Mullah Baradar had been captured and was still in Afghanistan actively organising the group's military and political activities.

"He has not been captured. They want to spread this rumour just to divert the attention of people from their defeats in Marjah and confuse the public," Zabihullah Mujahid said. US officials say he is the most significant Taliban figure captured since the start of the Afghanistan war. But one American official warned: "Even when you get their leaders, they've shown an amazing resilience to bounce back. It's an adaptive organisation." Sky's Alex Crawford said: "The man is being interrogated primarily by the ISI but also by the Americans.

"It's not clear exactly where is being held, whether he is still in Karachi or not - I would doubt that as they would be very wary of attempts to try to kill him or try to free him. "According to Pakistani officials, they say he is giving them some key evidence about the whereabouts of Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders." Mullah Baradar is the Taliban's most senior figure behind the reclusive Mullah Omar, who has been hiding from Western agencies since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.

British forces are currently fighting alongside US and Afghan forces in NATO's biggest offensives against Taliban militants in Afghanistan - Operation Moshtarak. More than 15,000 British, American, Afghan and other troops are taking part in Moshtarak to reclaim the town of Marjah from Taliban control. Crawford added of Baradar's capture: "The timing of this announcement is very, very convenient - it will be portrayed as a good, successful coup by the Coalition troops and by the Pakistani authorities."

The New York Times newspaper said it learned of the operation to capture him on Thursday, but delayed reporting it after a request by White House officials who said disclosing it would end a very successful intelligence drive. It said it was now publishing the report because White House officials acknowledged that news of the capture was becoming broadly known in the region.

 

[yellow people]

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</td></tr></tbody> </table> A soldier from F Company (Fire Support) 1 Royal Welsh resting during Operation Moshtarak in the Nadi Ali District

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U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment walk in a column as they enter Marjah
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[yellow people]

Taleban using human shields


World
Feb 18, 2010

Taleban using human shields

<!-- by line --> <!-- end by line --> MARJAH (Afghanistan) - TALEBAN fighters holding out in Marjah are increasingly using civilians as human shields, firing from compounds where US and Afghan forces can clearly see women and children on rooftops or in windows, Afghan and US troops said on Wednesday. The intermingling of fighters and civilians also has been witnessed by Associated Press journalists. It is part of a Taleban effort to exploit strict Nato rules against endangering innocent lives to impede the allied advance through the town in Helmand province, 610km south-west of Kabul. Two more Nato service members were killed in the Marjah operation on Wednesday, the alliance said in a statement without identifying them by nationality.

Their deaths brought to six Nato service members and one Afghan soldier who have been killed since the attack on Marjah, the hub of the Taleban's southern logistics and drug-smuggling network, began Saturday. About 40 insurgents have been killed, Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal said. During Wednesday's fighting, Marines and Afghan troops 'saw sustained but less frequent insurgent activity,' mostly small-scale attacks, Nato said in a statement. Nato spokesman Brigadier General Eric Tremblay told journalists in Brussels that most of the objectives have been achieved. 'Perhaps the pocket in the western side of Marjah still gives freedom of movement to the Taleban, but that is the extent of their movement,' he said. -- AP

 

[yellow people]

Officials: Captured Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is providing 'useful information'

BY Richard Sisk

DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Wednesday, February 17th 2010, 4:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The captured No. 2 Taliban commander, in the hands of none-too-gentle Pakistani intelligence agents, is already giving up "useful information," U.S. and Afghan sources said Tuesday. "It's certainly a breakthrough and I think it could be a turning point" in the Afghan war, James Dobbins, former U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, said of last week's arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Pakistan.

"This is a major terrorist who has been at the core of Taliban operations for years" as a friend since boyhood of Taliban chieftain Mullah Mohammed Omar, a U.S. counterterror official said of Baradar, who also oversaw the Taliban's drug and protection rackets. The importance of his capture, in a joint operation by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the CIA, was underlined by the Taliban's insistence it never happened.

"We totally deny this rumor," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press by telephone. Mujahid said the U.S. was boasting of the capture "to try to demoralize the Taliban who are on jihad in Marja," the center of Taliban drug-running operations in southern Helmand Province that is under attack by U.S. Marines and allied forces. The demoralization part could happen. "Having him off the battlefield means the near-term disruption of plotting against coalition forces" in Marja and elsewhere, the counterterror official said.

"It must also be a severe psychological blow to the group's senior ranks." But the official warned the U.S. advantage could be brief. "They've proven resilient before," the official said. "That's why it's critical to keep turning up the heat on them." Pakistan's government was reluctant to acknowledge that Baradar is in custody, and it was not clear over the long run whether he will be held in Pakistan or handed over to the U.S. Pakistan has been an intermittent ally of the U.S. in the eight-year war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and the relationship has been problematic for Pakistani politicians with an electorate that has become increasingly anti-American.

But Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), who is visiting Pakistan, said Baradar's arrest could signal the Islamabad authorities have now decided the Taliban pose a threat to them as well as the U.S. "The level of violence that has been brought by these insurgents has convinced the government of Pakistan and Pakistani people that their country is threatened and that this fight is their fight," Kerry said on CBS' "This Morning."

[email protected]

​

 

[yellow people]

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A US Marine guards a combat outpost in Trikh Nawar, a poppy farmland area on the northeastern outskirts of Marjah. A senior British commander has warned it could take weeks to wrest control of the Afghan town because of determined Taliban resistance, as NATO said four more soldiers had been killed in the operation. <cite id="captionCite">(AFP/Patrick Baz)

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Afghan National Army soldiers take part in an exercise near a military base in Gereshk City, Helmand province on February 17. Duration: 00: <cite id="captionCite">38(AFP)

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A US army Blackhawk helicopter lands near a marine combat outpost in Trikh Nawar, a poppy farmland area on the northeastern outskirts of Marjah.
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A U.S. Marine dog handler stands with his bomb-sniffing working dog as British medics receive him at a military hospital at the end of a helicopter medevac mission of the U.S. Army's Task Force Pegasus, Camp Bastion, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Wednesday Feb. 17, 2010. The lifesaving dog, which had stopped functioning well, according to his handler, was evacuated along with a wounded Afghan civilian by TF Pegasus.
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Britain's Prince Charles (C) speaks with members of the Army Air Corps and their families ahead of their deployment to Afghanistan during a visit to Dishforth Air base, northern England February 18, 2010.
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U.S. Marines with NATO forces keep vigil as Marines and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers setup a joint military base in north of Marjah, city of Helmand province, Thursday Feb. 18, 2010.
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An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier stands guard as a suspected Taliban sits blindfolded and hands tied on the ground in Marjah, city of Helmand province, Thursday Feb. 18, 2010.
<cite id="captionCite"> (AP Photo/Jerome Starkey, Pool)</cite>

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