ARMY GENERAL DEMPSEY SAYS AFGHANS CONCERNED OVER INSIDER ATTACKS

Photo Credit:  U.S. Navy
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE
Dempsey: Afghans Share Concern Over Insider Attacks

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 20, 2012 - Afghan leaders are just as concerned as coalition authorities are about insider attacks, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said today after meetings here.
　
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said this is the first time in his dozens of trips to the region that Afghans have exhibited this same level of concern.
　
"I am reassured that the Afghan military and civilian leaders understand how important this moment is," he said.
　
This year has seen 32 incidents of Afghan soldiers and police turning weapons on coalition personnel, said Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz of the German air force, a NATO spokesman. The alliance is taking precautions and will continue to study the situation, he said.
　
Dempsey said his meeting with Gen. Sher Muhammad Karimi, Afghanistan's defense chief, showed him the Afghans recognize the problem.
　
"In the past, it's been us pushing on them to make sure they do more," Dempsey said at Kabul Air Base. "This time, without prompting, when I met General Karimi, he started with a conversation about insider attacks – and, importantly, insider attacks not just against us, but insider attacks against the Afghans, too."
　
Dempsey said he does not anticipate changing the basic way coalition forces work with their Afghan allies, but acknowledged that remains to be determined. "The actual key to this might not be to pull back and isolate ourselves, but [to] reach out and embrace them even more," the general said. "Again, this is my instinct based on conversations today that I now have to flesh out with our leaders."
　
In addition to meeting with Karimi, Dempsey met with Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command; Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force; and Army Lt. Gen. James Terry, the commander of ISAF Joint Command.

Dempsey also discussed the nascent anti-Taliban movement in Afghanistan's Ghazni province and other areas in the country.
　
A senior NATO intelligence official told reporters residents of Ghazni's Andar district protested against the local Taliban closing schools and attacking village leaders. In April, they banded together and forced the Taliban out. The movement has since spread, and residents have spontaneously banded against the Taliban in 26 other areas of the country.
　
Dempsey called the movement "a very positive step, and one that should be encouraged."
　
The chairman said he does not want to overstate the importance of the movement, because it is somewhat isolated. But it indicates the Taliban's message is being rejected, he added.
　
Dempsey said the Taliban started the fighting season with three objectives: discrediting Afghanistan's central government, impeding the development of the national security forces, and recapturing lost territory.
　
"In every one of those objectives they've failed," he said. "We have given a real opportunity for the Afghan government to establish its governance by allowing the security environment to show progress and, therefore, hope."

PENTAGON SPOKESMAN SAYS TALIBAN MOMENTUM THWARTED AND THRUST BACK

Photo:  U.S. Department of Defense
FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

Taliban on Their Heels, Pentagon

Spokesman Says

By Jim Garamone

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2012 - Coalition and Afghan forces have reversed the Taliban's momentum and will continue to build on that success, a senior Pentagon spokesman said today.

"The Taliban's momentum has not only been thwarted, it's been thrust back," Navy Capt. John Kirby told reporters. "We believe they are in a much weaker position."

In December 2009, President Barack Obama announced a surge of 33,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. These forces, deployed mostly in the south, took the fight to the Taliban and their terrorist allies.

Training for Afghan forces proceeded apace, and the number of forces will reach 352,000 later this summer. Even with the withdrawal of 10,000 American troops in December 2011 and another 23,000 by the end of September 2012, more forces are facing the Taliban threat.

"The Taliban [are] in a much weaker position as we head into this spring than they were as little as a year ago," Kirby said.

U.S., coalition and Afghan forces were very active during the winter months – when the Taliban typically go underground – and this has paid off as the fighting season proceeds.

Even high-profile Taliban attacks are not reversing the tide against the organization, Kirby said. "Just take a look at the high-profile attacks, or the attempted attacks, that they've tried in the last month," he said, noting "a lot of ballyhoo" over a coordinated attack in and around the Afghan capital of Kabul on April 15.

"It was over by the next morning," he said. Another attempted attack in the hours after Obama's visit to Afghanistan last week was "completely ineffective," he added.

U.S. officials believe the Taliban are on their heels. "It is much more difficult for them to move around, to resource, to plan and execute," Kirby said, though he added it's too early to count the Taliban out.

"They are still a resilient, determined enemy," he said. "We understand that. But we really do believe that we have wrested the momentum from the Taliban."

AFGHAN FORCES CONTAIN TALIBAN ATTACK

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
Afghan Forces Contain Taliban Attack in Kabul
Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases
WASHINGTON, May 2, 2012 - Afghan security forces led a capable and quick response in containing a Taliban attack in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul today, military officials reported.

All of the attackers were killed, officials said. According to initial International Security Assistance Force reporting, a small group of insurgents attacked a private compound. The attack was unsuccessful in killing any ISAF personnel, but it resulted in Afghan civilian casualties, including children.

"This is another desperate attack by the Taliban, but again another noteworthy performance by Afghan security forces for taking the lead in putting down another desperate attack by insurgents," said German army Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson, ISAF spokesman. The insurgents' attack "resulted in the deaths of innocent Afghan civilians, with most of that being children from a nearby school," Jacobson added.
In operations around Afghanistan today:

-- An Afghan-led, coalition-supported force killed an insurgent, detained several suspects and seized assault rifles, magazines with ammunition, and multiple grenades and rocket-propelled grenades during a mission to capture a Taliban leader in the Baghlan-e Jadid district of Baghlan province.

-- A combined force detained a Taliban leader as well as multiple insurgents and confiscated bomb-making materials in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province. The insurgent leader directed roadside bombings and other attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.

-- A combined force detained several suspects while searching for a Taliban leader in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province. The leader plans and coordinates roadside bombings, suicide attacks and other operations against Afghan and coalition forces. He also attempts to impose Taliban law on Afghan civilians in the Musa Qalah, Now Zad and Baghran districts.

-- A combined force captured a Taliban leader and another suspect in the Gelan district of Ghazni province. The insurgent leader conducted roadside-bomb attacks against Afghan civilians, Afghan security forces and coalition troops along Highway 1.

-- A combined force detained multiple suspects and seized a manual for constructing improvised explosive devices during an operation to capture a Haqqani network facilitator in the Muhammad Aghah district of Logar province. The facilitator provides weapons, ammunition and equipment to insurgents for attacks against Afghan officials, Afghan troops, and coalition forces in Kabul City.

-- A combined force detained multiple suspects and seized several weapons and a grenade during an operation to capture a Haqqani facilitator in the Sabari district of Khost province. The facilitator provides weapons, ammunition and IEDs to insurgents for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces.
Yesterday, a combined force found and destroyed about 2,035 pounds of homemade explosive materials and multiple IED-making components in the Ab Band district of Ghazni province.

U.S.DENIES SUNDAY'S TALIBAN ATTACKS WERE LIKE 1968 TET OFFENSIVE

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

Official Dismisses Comparison of Kabul Attacks, Tet Offensive

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2012 - A few terrorist attacks does not make yesterday's combat in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul the "Taliban Tet Offensive," the Pentagon's top public affairs official said here today.

The Tet Offensive in 1968 involved tens of thousands of North Vietnamese regulars and thousands of Viet Cong irregulars. They attacked the length and breadth of South Vietnam from Hue in the north to the Mekong Delta to the American Embassy in Saigon.

Yesterday's attacks, by contrast, involved tens of terrorists armed with suicide vests and car bombs and some rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, George Little, acting assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, told reporters.

"Initial indications are that the Haqqani network was involved in the attacks in Kabul," Little said. "This was a well-coordinated set of attacks. I'm unaware of any U.S. casualties."

The Afghan national security forces responded to the attacks and handled matters by themselves, Little said. "They had the lead role in many instances and successfully repelled the enemy," he said.

The attacks mark the beginning of the "fighting season" in Afghanistan, when enemy fighters typically have become active after the harsh Afghanistan winter.

"We thought something like this could very well happen, and it did," Little said. "These were attacks that we believe show the Haqqanis and other insurgents are concerned about the progress being made in Afghanistan. And the fact that certain institutions of governance in Afghanistan were targeted ... suggests they feel the need to attack those institutions and what those institutions stand for: a brighter Afghanistan."

Little flatly rejected any analogy between yesterday's events in Afghanistan and the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. "This was a coordinated set of attacks," he said. "We are looking at suicide bombers, RPG, mortar fire etc. This was not a large-scale offensive sweeping into Kabul or other parts of the country."

The actions were multiple terrorist attacks, he noted. "I'm not minimizing the serious

ness of this, but this was in no way akin to the Tet Offensive or other enemy offensives that I'm aware of," he said.

While Little didn't speak directly to intelligence on the attacks, he did say chatter had indicated something like this might occur. "I don't believe this was an intelligence failure," he said. "We had some sense that something like this might happen. We know from past history that this is something they might do. This is the start of the spring fighting season, and the response was very effective.

"If we're going to be held to the standard that we have to know precisely when and where each insurgent attack is going to occur," he continued, "then that's an unfair standard."