Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ABC; FNC
June 18, 2008 World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: Overseas now to Afghanistan, where troops are battling Taliban militants just days after hundreds of Taliban fighters were freed from a Kandahar prison in a dramatic prison break. Today, coalition forces killed at least 36 Taliban in villages outside Kandahar.
Our senior foreign correspondent, Jim Sciutto, has been with U.S. Marines, fighting the resurgent Taliban, and reports from Kandahar tonight.
JIM SCIUTTO: Hundreds of troops moved into villages outside Kandahar today on a mission: to show that the area around Afghanistan’s second largest city is under coalition, not Taliban, control.
COL. JAMIE CADE [Deputy Commander, Canadian Forces]: As we speak, operations, aggressive patrolling is being conducted to move to the compounds where we have Taliban reports and deal with it appropriately.
SCIUTTO: The troops met little resistance, though commanders acknowledged Taliban fighters, perhaps hundreds of them, are lurking here. Many residents have already fled in fear.
“The Taliban were in my village,” said this man. “I heard the fighting and it’s still going on.”
The Taliban offensive is taking place within just a few miles of here – Kandahar Airfield, the second largest coalition base in Afghanistan with thousands of troops and dozens of aircraft. Kandahar was the Taliban’s stronghold until the invasion forced them out in 2001. But in recent months they’ve regrouped here and elsewhere in the country, again giving coalition forces a fight.
In Southern Afghanistan, more than 3,000 U.S. Marines were sent in to take back Helmand Province. Thirty days of hard fighting forced out large groups of fighters while others melted away among the local population.
CAPT. SEAN O’NEILL [U.S. Marine Corps]: Definitely the Taliban has pushed out of this area for the most part. However, without a longer, more enduring presence they could reinfiltrate the area.
SCIUTTO: In Kandahar, the challenge now is to reassure residents and the world that this city will not become a haven for terrorists once again.
Jim Sciutto, ABC News, Kandahar.
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: We’ve been telling you for a few days that the Taliban has been making moves on Afghanistan villages, massing its forces and preparing for a comeback run against NATO troops. Today the NATO troops made their move. Reporter Scott Heidler reports from neighboring Pakistan.
SCOTT HEIDLER: A major anti-Taliban operation was launched today in the southern part of Afghanistan near Kandahar city. NATO’s international security forces were working with Afghan national army to push Taliban fighters back from the country’s second largest city and the spiritual home of the Taliban.
BRIG. GEN. CARLOS BRANCO [International Security Assistance Police]: The Afghan national army commenced this morning with operation – (unintelligible) – with the support of ISAF troops. So far we are progressing quite well, but we are moving very carefully.
HEIDLER: That, they say, to prevent civilian casualties, but also, since this is Taliban country, many of the fighters could simply melt into the communities. This fight has been brewing for a few days and its offensive characterized by NATO as a cleanup operation has already killed 36 Taliban fighters. Two Afghan soldiers were killed in a firefight as well. Hundreds of villagers have fled the area. Yesterday, NATO dropped fliers telling people to stay in their houses for safety. On Monday at least ten villages in the Argandab district, 12 miles from Kandahar city, were overrun by Taliban fighters who appeared to be digging in for a fight and the area strategic for an attack on Kandahar. They blew up bridges and laid mines. The Afghan government began flying in more than 700 troops to bolster the Afghan national army force down in Kandahar. NATO only reassigned troops already part of its southern command.
Today’s fighting is a culmination of a Taliban offensive that began six days ago in an area of the south the Pentagon says is in dire need of more coalition forces. It all started with an audacious and well-coordinated Taliban attack at the main prison in Kandahar city on Friday. A huge tanker truck bomb and fighters on motorcycles killed 15 guards and sprung about 1,000 prisoners, and 300 to 400 of them Taliban fighters. The Taliban claims some of the escapees joined the ranks for this battle now in Argandab. The attack was even deemed a success for the Taliban by a NATO official, though he put no weight in its significance.
The question still to be answered is if the NATO cleanup operation in Argandab will be equally successful. In Islamabad, Pakistan, Scott Heidler, Fox News.
June 18, 2008 World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: Overseas now to Afghanistan, where troops are battling Taliban militants just days after hundreds of Taliban fighters were freed from a Kandahar prison in a dramatic prison break. Today, coalition forces killed at least 36 Taliban in villages outside Kandahar.
Our senior foreign correspondent, Jim Sciutto, has been with U.S. Marines, fighting the resurgent Taliban, and reports from Kandahar tonight.
JIM SCIUTTO: Hundreds of troops moved into villages outside Kandahar today on a mission: to show that the area around Afghanistan’s second largest city is under coalition, not Taliban, control.
COL. JAMIE CADE [Deputy Commander, Canadian Forces]: As we speak, operations, aggressive patrolling is being conducted to move to the compounds where we have Taliban reports and deal with it appropriately.
SCIUTTO: The troops met little resistance, though commanders acknowledged Taliban fighters, perhaps hundreds of them, are lurking here. Many residents have already fled in fear.
“The Taliban were in my village,” said this man. “I heard the fighting and it’s still going on.”
The Taliban offensive is taking place within just a few miles of here – Kandahar Airfield, the second largest coalition base in Afghanistan with thousands of troops and dozens of aircraft. Kandahar was the Taliban’s stronghold until the invasion forced them out in 2001. But in recent months they’ve regrouped here and elsewhere in the country, again giving coalition forces a fight.
In Southern Afghanistan, more than 3,000 U.S. Marines were sent in to take back Helmand Province. Thirty days of hard fighting forced out large groups of fighters while others melted away among the local population.
CAPT. SEAN O’NEILL [U.S. Marine Corps]: Definitely the Taliban has pushed out of this area for the most part. However, without a longer, more enduring presence they could reinfiltrate the area.
SCIUTTO: In Kandahar, the challenge now is to reassure residents and the world that this city will not become a haven for terrorists once again.
Jim Sciutto, ABC News, Kandahar.
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: We’ve been telling you for a few days that the Taliban has been making moves on Afghanistan villages, massing its forces and preparing for a comeback run against NATO troops. Today the NATO troops made their move. Reporter Scott Heidler reports from neighboring Pakistan.
SCOTT HEIDLER: A major anti-Taliban operation was launched today in the southern part of Afghanistan near Kandahar city. NATO’s international security forces were working with Afghan national army to push Taliban fighters back from the country’s second largest city and the spiritual home of the Taliban.
BRIG. GEN. CARLOS BRANCO [International Security Assistance Police]: The Afghan national army commenced this morning with operation – (unintelligible) – with the support of ISAF troops. So far we are progressing quite well, but we are moving very carefully.
HEIDLER: That, they say, to prevent civilian casualties, but also, since this is Taliban country, many of the fighters could simply melt into the communities. This fight has been brewing for a few days and its offensive characterized by NATO as a cleanup operation has already killed 36 Taliban fighters. Two Afghan soldiers were killed in a firefight as well. Hundreds of villagers have fled the area. Yesterday, NATO dropped fliers telling people to stay in their houses for safety. On Monday at least ten villages in the Argandab district, 12 miles from Kandahar city, were overrun by Taliban fighters who appeared to be digging in for a fight and the area strategic for an attack on Kandahar. They blew up bridges and laid mines. The Afghan government began flying in more than 700 troops to bolster the Afghan national army force down in Kandahar. NATO only reassigned troops already part of its southern command.
Today’s fighting is a culmination of a Taliban offensive that began six days ago in an area of the south the Pentagon says is in dire need of more coalition forces. It all started with an audacious and well-coordinated Taliban attack at the main prison in Kandahar city on Friday. A huge tanker truck bomb and fighters on motorcycles killed 15 guards and sprung about 1,000 prisoners, and 300 to 400 of them Taliban fighters. The Taliban claims some of the escapees joined the ranks for this battle now in Argandab. The attack was even deemed a success for the Taliban by a NATO official, though he put no weight in its significance.
The question still to be answered is if the NATO cleanup operation in Argandab will be equally successful. In Islamabad, Pakistan, Scott Heidler, Fox News.