Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 4, 2008
The military will target insurgents, who go into snowy areas and wait to launch spring attacks.
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALAGUSH, Afghanistan -- American troops in Afghanistan will step up offensive operations this winter because insurgents are increasingly staying in the country to prepare for spring attacks, a U.S. commander told the Associated Press.
Maj. Gen. Jeffery J. Schloesser said a 40 percent surge in violence in April and May was fueled in part by extremists preparing stores of weapons during the winter, which generally is a slow period for fighting, particularly in snowy Afghan mountainous areas.
"If we don't do anything over the winter, the enemy will more and more try to seek safe haven in Afghanistan rather than going back to Pakistan," Schloesser said.
U.S. and NATO officials say extremists cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they rest, train and resupply in tribal areas along the frontier where the Pakistani government has little sway.
Schloesser estimated 7,000 to 11,000 insurgents operate in the eastern part of Afghanistan that he oversees - a far higher estimate than given by previous U.S. commanders.
He said the U.S. military realized more extremists spent last winter in Afghanistan after speaking with elders and villagers who had been pushed out of their homes. The spike in violence in the spring occurred because insurgents were already in position to unleash attacks, though U.S. officials did not know it at the time, he said.
"They didn't have to come over the passes - they were already here," Schloesser said during an interview while flying in a Black Hawk helicopter Monday to a small U.S. outpost in Nuristan, a province that borders Pakistan.
A NATO spokeswoman said she did not believe increased operations would take place over the winter in other areas of Afghanistan where the United States was not the primary military force.
Attacks in the eastern part of Afghanistan where U.S. troops primarily operate were 20 percent to 30 percent higher in June and July than a year earlier, Schloesser said.
He said an attack Aug. 18 by six or so suicide bombers on a large U.S. base near the Pakistan border was carried out by Arabs and Chechens, foreign extremists who are increasingly flowing into the Afghan theater. He said extremist Web sites have been encouraging fighters to go to Afghanistan instead of Iraq.
"I can't prove they are coming from Iraq to Afghanistan," Schloesser said, "but I've seen it on Web sites that that's what they're being told to do."
September 4, 2008
The military will target insurgents, who go into snowy areas and wait to launch spring attacks.
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALAGUSH, Afghanistan -- American troops in Afghanistan will step up offensive operations this winter because insurgents are increasingly staying in the country to prepare for spring attacks, a U.S. commander told the Associated Press.
Maj. Gen. Jeffery J. Schloesser said a 40 percent surge in violence in April and May was fueled in part by extremists preparing stores of weapons during the winter, which generally is a slow period for fighting, particularly in snowy Afghan mountainous areas.
"If we don't do anything over the winter, the enemy will more and more try to seek safe haven in Afghanistan rather than going back to Pakistan," Schloesser said.
U.S. and NATO officials say extremists cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where they rest, train and resupply in tribal areas along the frontier where the Pakistani government has little sway.
Schloesser estimated 7,000 to 11,000 insurgents operate in the eastern part of Afghanistan that he oversees - a far higher estimate than given by previous U.S. commanders.
He said the U.S. military realized more extremists spent last winter in Afghanistan after speaking with elders and villagers who had been pushed out of their homes. The spike in violence in the spring occurred because insurgents were already in position to unleash attacks, though U.S. officials did not know it at the time, he said.
"They didn't have to come over the passes - they were already here," Schloesser said during an interview while flying in a Black Hawk helicopter Monday to a small U.S. outpost in Nuristan, a province that borders Pakistan.
A NATO spokeswoman said she did not believe increased operations would take place over the winter in other areas of Afghanistan where the United States was not the primary military force.
Attacks in the eastern part of Afghanistan where U.S. troops primarily operate were 20 percent to 30 percent higher in June and July than a year earlier, Schloesser said.
He said an attack Aug. 18 by six or so suicide bombers on a large U.S. base near the Pakistan border was carried out by Arabs and Chechens, foreign extremists who are increasingly flowing into the Afghan theater. He said extremist Web sites have been encouraging fighters to go to Afghanistan instead of Iraq.
"I can't prove they are coming from Iraq to Afghanistan," Schloesser said, "but I've seen it on Web sites that that's what they're being told to do."