It's good that western troops get real, live fire exercises. You can't buy this kind of training.
Posted on 01/13/2006 1:51:23 PM PST by Flavius
HUNDREDS of foreign Islamic fighters are gathering in Afghanistan ahead of the deployment of 4,000 British troops to the country in the spring.
British intelligence sources have told The Scotsman Islamic radicals sympathetic to al-Qaeda see Afghanistan as their new frontline and are starting to shift the focus of their anti-western campaign from Iraq.
The fighters, including Jordanians, Yemenis, Egyptians and Gulf Arabs, stepped up their campaign two months ago with a series of suicide bombings against NATO peacekeepers, United States troops and Afghan government leaders.
"Attacks in Afghanistan are now running at more than 500 a month - it's getting as dangerous for westerners as Iraq in some places," said a British officer involved in planning the NATO peacekeeping mission in the south-west of the country.
Particularly worrying for British troops has been a spate of battles over the past month in the area where paratroopers of 16 Air Assault Brigade are due to deploy from April on peace-keeping and anti-drug duties. US special forces teams patrolling Helmand and Uruzgan provinces called in air support on five occasions over the past three weeks. RAF Harriers based in Khandahar joined in two of these incidents, in which large groups of insurgents openly battled with US troops and allied Afghan forces.
Teams of suicide bombers are reported to be active in Kabul and several other major towns, according to British sources. Groups of insurgents regularly mount raids from mountain hideouts against US patrols and units of the Afghan army. In rural areas, insurgents are becoming increasingly proficient in the use of improvised roadside bombs, many of which are similar to those that have taken such a heavy toll on coalition forces in Iraq.
The foreign fighters are making common cause with remnants of the Taleban regime hiding in southern Afghanistan and with local tribesmen who resent efforts by the Kabul regime, backed by the US and Britain, to clamp down on the drugs trade. Washington's decision to pull out 4,000 troops from south-west Afghanistan, ahead of the NATO deployment, has emboldened insurgents, who claim it is the start of a complete defeat of US troops who have patrolled the country since late 2001.
British intelligence officers say the drugs trade and the growing Afghan insurgency are inextricably linked with the dramatic increases in heroin exports, allowing pro-Taleban groups to buy in supplies of weapons and fund foreign fighters.
Worries over casualties and the cost of keeping thousands of troops in Afghanistan for at least two years has made several NATO nations balk at joining the mission in Afghanistan.
Although NATO agreed to back the expansion of the International Security Assistance Force last month, the Dutch parliament has still to agree to a request for 1,000 troops. So far, only Canada, Australia and Denmark have committed troops to join the UK-led NATO command in the south-west.
Yesterday, Francesc Vendrell, the European Union's special representative to Afghanistan, added his voice to the pressure on the Dutch to send troops.
"It is extremely important for the credibility of the EU that we should be willing to go to difficult areas," he said.
Related topic
1,600,000,000.00 Hate the west? 2.00% 32,000,000.00 Combat Soldiers 0.02% 320,000.00 Combat Soldiers
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I think this is really good news. There abandoning Iraq for Afghanistan. We'll get some really decent kills there.
Nice point..
Bad move on their part. I suspect that the foreign fighters will have as much help from the local Afghanis as the Russians did.
Yes and also an end (for the most part) of the urban environment. We can let the Global Hawks spot them and then shake and bake.
It would seem as if the countries surrounding Trash-can-istan should be held as somewhat responsible for these people trekking overland to fight our troops.
Are these foreign fighters airlifted there?
Looks like the Club Gitmo publicity blitz is finally paying off....
well, 2c worth, you have millions or thousands, or hundreths of jihadists in paki land, then there is iran, they are im sure helping out
so who know its a smorgus board
Foreign fighters in Iraq are finding increasing resentment from the local populace ... which makes it very difficult to operate. Afghanistan, with a smaller population and more rural in nature makes targeting these raghead scumbags that much easier.
Certainly less probability of "blowback" using Daisy Cutters in rural Afghanistan than in downtown Baghdad.
"HUNDREDS of foreign Islamic fighters are gathering..."
Their D-Day Invasion includes "hundreds" of fighters. Hope they have the audacity to do a meet and greet. One daisy cutter ought to finish them off.
It's good that western troops get real, live fire exercises. You can't buy this kind of training.
It's good that western troops get real, live fire exercises. You can't buy this kind of training.
Where is "there"?
Whoops! Should be "They're" (Hey, it's Friday)
Yes, Eyem a grammar junky. Two much Laten, and other strange languagez. Butt az eye git older, my spellin haz gon too sh!t.
Dang, you talk good english!
Afghanistan.
Land of the MOAB!
The Flypaper Doctrine.
You have a nebulous underground group of fanatics that are difficult to identify and locate. They can predictably be relied on, however, to throw themselves into certain death under certain circumstances. Create those circumstances and they will come to you.
I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it works like gangbusters. With Iraq and Afghanistan, we have a couple of wonderfully effective bug zappers.
I want 'em all. I utterly reject the notion that we are "creating" more terrorists by killing them in OIF and OEF. If there's somebody out there just "teetering" on the verge of extremism and all it takes is American presence in that part of the world to push him over the edge to jihad... I want him too.
That there is an unlimited number of them waiting in line to decide to join the jihad is a myth.
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