U.S. Marines Firefight In Sangin

[longknife]

by Bill Corcoran

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qOoigty2o5I]U.S. Marines Firefight In Sangin - YouTube[/ame]

U.S. Marines from 2nd Platoon, India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, engage in a firefight with Insurgents during an operation in Sangin, Helmand Province,

 

[retro]

Get the guys out of there - they're doing no good 'half-fighting' on the enemy's home ground.

In my view David Petraeus was wrong in his Army field manual 3-24 - CounterInsurgency.

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-24.pdf

He takes views like:
''disarming,demobilizing, and reintegrating former insurgents and their groups must be part of the overall COIN plan. It must be included in the recruiting effort'.

He's assuming he's dealing with people who think like Westerners - muslims don't.

They will accept all the funds and construction assistance, weapons and training you are daft enough to give them - and then turn them on you. They wait 'til you put your guns down - then machine gun you from a rooftop.

No amount of appeasement will gain you any ground towards 'democracy' - they hate it. The concept is incompatible with Islam.

Bring them home, and fight muslim trouble-makers (and that's all of them all over the World) from a distance. They don't like that.

And for goodness sake, keep a close eye on those already infiltrating your own back-yard.

 

[waltky]

Hope there's not a MFS hospital nearby...

Losing Afghanistan: Taliban close to re-capturing key city
Feb. 7, 2016 - Sangin, a district located in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, nearly fell to a Taliban assault in December last year.

An Afghan army commander says the Taliban are once again on the verge of overrunning the Sangin district of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province. The BBC quoted the commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying the Taliban now control a majority of the district and have in recent days attacked the remaining government-controlled positions, killing dozens of Afghan military personnel. The commander reportedly said eight soldiers were killed and nine captured at a base known as "Sahra Yak," which fell late last week. The militants confiscated ammunition and weapons, including an armored vehicle, and are now threatening two other bases that "will have the same fate" if not given the proper support. "It is the fourth day that one dead body is with us, and four wounded in the past week," he said. "It is the tenth day that we eat only dry bread, borrowing it from the local police."

Afghan troop in Helmand province​

Afghan military officials have downplayed the Taliban assault in Sangin, saying the district is secure despite admitting the presence of jihadists. Sangin nearly fell in December to a Taliban assault that was stalled by reinforcements from Kabul, including Afghan special forces and British troops acting as advisers. At the time, the deputy governor of Helmand province wrote a Facebook post to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani saying Helmand was standing "on the brink" of complete capture. Brig. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, a senior spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, insisted the province would "absolutely not fall to the Taliban." "We do confirm there have been casualties and there may be some tactical problems, but we are inflicting heavy casualties on the Taliban, and the area will be cleared soon," the Washington Post quoted him as saying.

Afghan security forces last year experienced a sharp increase in casualties after NATO forces passed the combat mission to local police and military units at the end of 2014. The Taliban launched a series of high-profile attacks in places such as the northern city of Kunduz and the Kandahar airport. In August, the Taliban captured the Musa Qala district of Helmand but lost it to a government counter-attack that was supported by U.S. airstrikes. An estimated 16,000 members of Afghanistan's army and police were killed in 2015 -- up from 12,500 the year before. The situation in Sangin comes one day after officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States launched a third round of talks aimed at charting a path toward peace talks between the Taliban and Kabul.

Losing Afghanistan: Taliban close to re-capturing key city

See also:

U.S. drone strike kills 16 Islamic State militants in Afghanistan
Feb. 7, 2016 - At least 29 Islamic State fighters also perished last week when a U.S. drone targeted a radio station used by the militants in the same eastern Afghan province.

Afghani officials said Saturday a U.S. drone strike and a separate attack by the Afghan military killed at least 28 Islamic State militants in the country's Nangarhar province. The drone strike occurred Friday in the mountainous Achin district bordering Pakistan, killing 16 of the militants, who were identified as Pakistani, district chief Haji Ghalib told Voice of America. In the nearby Kot district, provincial officials said Afghan security forces killed at least 12 IS militants during overnight clashes that also resulted in the deaths of two civilians caught in the crossfire.

An Air Force MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial attack vehicle prepares to land after a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on November 27, 2009. On February 6, 2016, Afghan officials said a U.S. drone strike killed 16 Islamic State militants near the Pakistani border in the Achin district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province​

A total of 29 IS militants were reportedly killed when a U.S. drone launched missiles at a radio station used by the militants in the Achin district last week. In both instances, U.S. military spokesman Col. Michael Lawhorn confirmed U.S. forces launched airstrikes in the Achin district but declined to provide details for security reasons. IS holds territory in Iraq and Syria and commands the loyalty of several affiliates in Africa and Asia. The group announced a branch in Afghanistan in January 2015, headquartered in the Achin district. The affiliate has since clashed with Afghan security forces and rival Taliban militants. Hundreds of IS fighters were reported to have assaulted police checkpoints in the Achin district in September.

The IS affiliate has abducted and executed hundreds of people in eastern portions of Afghanistan, and local residents have reportedly said the Taliban seemed "almost tame" in comparison. U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Wilson A. Shoffner, head of public affairs for the U.S.-NATO mission in Afghanistan, said in August he did not think Afghan IS forces had the ability to grow and coordinate beyond the Nangarhar province, but he did say he thought they had the potential to evolve into "something more dangerous."

U.S. drone strike kills 16 Islamic State militants in Afghanistan