January19, 2007:
Pointing out that Taliban activity out of Pakistan has tripled since
September, when Pakistan called off its troops and made a deal with
pro-Taliban tribal chiefs, the U.S. is putting enormous, and quite public,
pressure on Pakistan to do something about the situation. This pleases
Afghanistan, which was not happy with the previous American "quiet
diplomacy" approach. The Pakistanis have reacted by arresting 400 people
suspected of being Taliban supporters. The U.S. has been giving Pakistan lists
with names and locations. There may be very few U.S. troops in Pakistan, but
there's a lot of intelligence collecting activity. The U.S. has an informant
network in Pakistan, and lots of overflights to take photos and collect
electronic data.
January
1 8, 2007: A Taliban death squad made another attack on a provincial governor
(of Paktika in the southeast). Using a suicide bomber, a soldier was killed,
but the governor was unharmed. Assassination is an ancient political tool in
Afghanistan.
American
commanders are asking for another combat brigade which, along with more
effective Afghan army units, they believe would provide an opportunity to smash
the Taliban even more successfully this year. That, plus Pakistan applying some
real pressure on Taliban bases across the border, might be a decisive
blow.
January
17, 2007: Afghan troops found a major Taliban ammo dump near the Pakistani
border. Not only that, but it was a mobile supply operation, for it consisted
of 40 pickup trucks, all loaded with weapons and ammo, hidden in caves. Most
had been placed there quite recently. In Helmland, a senior Taliban combat
commander was also captured by British commandos, but his name was not
released.
January
16, 2007: One of the chief Taliban spokesmen, Muhammad Hanif, was captured in
eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban depend on media savvy guys like this to get
their message out and play the media, mainly the Western media. Losing Hanif
will hurt, as he was very effective.
January
15, 2007: Noting the many Taliban movements, even in Winter, U.S.
commanders fear that the Taliban are going to try, once more, to take Kandahar
(the traditional Taliban "capital") in the Spring. Other NATO
commanders disagree, pointing out that the Taliban took a major beating when
they tried this last year, and give no indication of having learned anything,
or changed their tactics. The Americans are more suspicious, and are hustling
to try and find out of the Taliban have, indeed, come up with any
surprises.
January
14, 2007: U.S. commanders went public with details of the 150 Taliban
NATO forces killed near the Pakistani border last week. The dead Taliban had
recently been recruited in Pakistan and, quite obviously, were caught as they
tried to sneak across the border. This kind of talk is playing hardball with
Pakistan, which insists that most of the Taliban are from Afghanistan.
January
13, 2007: One of the little mentioned problems between Afghanistan and Pakistan
is that neither country agrees on where their borders are. The current border
was a "temporary" compromise, established in 1893, and is called the
"Durand Line." Pakistan likes the border the way it is, but Afghans
have always insisted it is farther east, and includes the Pakistani cities of
Peshawar and Quetta.
Another
30 Taliban were killed, and some 20 wounded, when they clashed with British
troops in southern Afghanistan. One soldier was killed.