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Operation Anaconda

Operation Anaconda began late Friday evening on March 1, 2002 in the mountainous Shahi Khot region south of the city of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. forces including the insertion of Special Operating Forces from several other nations set up observation posts. The 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne Division along with Afghan forces had units inserted into the objective area covering some 60 to 70 square miles. Rough terrain, an altitude of 8,000 to 12,000 feet, and a temperature in the evenings between 15 and 20 degrees °F, makes a very tough operating environment for soldiers.

Operation Anaconda is a force of about 2,000 soldiers of which more than half are U.S. conventional forces, Special Forces, and Special Operating Forces commanded by Major General Buster Hagenbeck of the 10th Mountain Division, headquartered at Fort Drum, New York. Coalition forces from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, and Norway joined United States troops in Operation ANACONDA. Operation Anaconda was part of the ongoing effort in Afghanistan to root out Taliban and al-Qaida forces holed up in the Pakitia Province area of the country.

When the Shahi Khot battle opened early March 2 (Afghan time), al Qaeda troops entrenched along ridges and mountainside caves used heavy machine-gun, mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire to immobilize allied Afghan forces and to pin down U.S. soldiers as they disembarked from helicopters.

At the time Operation Anaconda was the largest offensive of the five-month-old war. On March 17, 2002 Operation ANACONDA concluded; a total of eight American servicemen had been killed and 82 wounded in action.

Operation Snipe (UK Led)

It was confirmed on 2 May 2002 that personnel from 45 Commando Group had commenced Operation Snipe to search and clear a significant area in the remote Afghan mountains believed to be used as a base by Al Qaida and Taliban forces. The successful conclusion of Snipe was announced on 13 May.

Some 1,000 personnel from 45 Commando Group were deployed on the operation, along with local Afghan forces, supported by RAF Chinook helicopters of 27 Squadron. The area in question, in the south east of the country, had not previously been investigated by coalition forces. The aim was to search the area, to clear and destroy any terrorist infrastructure located there.

A major cave network containing a huge arms cache was discovered in the area of operations, and carefully investigated. Weapons and munitions discovered included over 100 mortars of various calibres, over 100 recoilless anti-tank guns, several hundred rocket-propelled grenades, 200 anti-personnel mines, hundreds of artillery rounds and rockets, and many thousands of small-arms and light anti-aircraft ammunition. Demolition charges were then emplaced and the entire complex destroyed, putting the arms dump permanently out of commission.

Operation Mountain Sweep

Operation Mountain Sweep continued Operation Mountain Lion in searching out al Qaeda and Taliban forces and information about the terrorist organizations. The troops discovered five separate weapons caches and two caches of Taliban documents. The operation took place mainly around the villages of Dormat and Narizah – south of the cities of Khowst and Gardez. The troopers found an anti-aircraft artillery gun, two 82mm mortars and ammunition, a recoilless rifle, rockets, rocket-propelled grenades, machines guns and thousands of small arms rounds. Coalition forces detained 10 persons during the operation.

The 229th, serving as the aviation arm for Task Force Shark, conducted 14 helicopter missions in support of the operation. More than 2,000 Coalition forces, consisting of seven infantry companies, combat engineers and elements of three aviation battalions, took part in the operation, completing Operation Mountain Sweep in the former al Qaeda and Taliban areas of Southeastern Afghanistan on August 26.

Operation Mountain Storm

Operation Mountain Storm began on or about March 12, 2004, following the completion of Operation Mountain Blizzard. Mountain Storm is the next in the continuing series of operations in the south, southeast, and eastern portions of Afghanistan designed to destroy terrorist organizations and their infrastructure while continuing to focus on national stability and support.

The new campaign would involve all of the more than 13-thousand coalition troops in Afghanistan. The real focus of Operation Mountain Storm is to maintain stability in Afghanistan as it prepares for national elections, currently slated for this summer. The coalition campaign coincides with Pakistan's hunt for foreign militants in its semi-autonomous tribal area of South Waziristan.

That operation, launched Friday, involves a posse of local tribesmen, organized by local elders amid pressure from the Pakistani government. It is not clear that the Waziristan action is related to US and Afghan operations across the border, however Pakistani officials say that their efforts are not being coordinated with any activity across the border.

Afghanistan, especially its southern provinces, is going through its worst spate of violence since a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 toppled the Taliban regime.

In Kandahar province Thursday, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a joint U.S.-Afghan army convoy on the main Kandahar-Kabul highway, seriously wounding one U.S. soldier, said Mohammadullah Khan, an Afghan army officer in the convoy.

Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack and said the bomber was Afghan. He said the militants will continue with "suicide bombings, guerrilla warfare and ambushes" against the U.S. and their allies in Afghanistan.

In nearby Uruzgan province, a suicide bomber targeting a NATO patrol killed one civilian and wounded six, said Maj. Scott Lundy, the spokesman for the NATO force.

let not your heart be hardened. Be not bitter, but proud. None that walk among us are immortal, and to bury a child is forever a tragedy. Yet your son lost his life in the most honorable manner possible. He died so that others may live.

Name: ROBERTS, NEIL C.
Rank/Branch: Aviation Boatswain's Mate-Handling Petty Officer 1st Class / U.S. NAVY, Norfolk, VA
Unit: SEAL
Age: 32
Home City: Woodland, CA
Date of Loss: March 5, 2002
Country of Loss: Afghanistan
Loss Coordinates:
Status: Prisoner of War, Executed/Remains Recovered
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

Other Personnel in Incident: 6 killed

REMARKS: AFGHANISTAN/OPERATION ANACONDA

U.S. officials have concluded after 10 months of war that the combat mission of U.S. conventional military troops in Afghanistan is largely over and that whatever fighting remains is likely to be carried out by small numbers of Special Forces troops and CIA operatives.

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country."

At least 47 dead, 100 injured in Iraqi bombings

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgents launched a string of bombings Wednesday in Baghdad and the nearby provinces of Diyala and Babil, killing at least 47 people and wounding more than 100 others, emergency officials said.

The violence reflects an uptick in casualties since Sunday, with nearly 200 Iraqis dying in bombings and shootings -- a challenge for U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi troops who said they had been making progress in establishing law and order, particularly in the capital.In an attack on a major commercial area in Baghdad, at least 24 Iraqis were killed and 45 more wounded Wednesday morning when a bomb ripped through Shurja, the city's largest market, Baghdad emergency police said.

An hour later, a car bomb exploded near a fuel station in central Baghdad, killing two and wounding 15, including five police officers, emergency officials said.A second bomb in the same area near Andalus Square.was detonated minutes later as a rescue team arrived to assist the wounded.

In the Diyala provincial town of Muqdadiya, at least three people were killed and 10 wounded -- including three police officers -- when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, a Baquba police official said. Muqdadiya is north of Baquba, the provincial capital.

Afghanistan Body Count Raises Skepticism

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer
1:18 PM PDT, September 15, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan -- NATO's estimate of Taliban killed this month has created skepticism and worry in Afghanistan, with local officials saying that either the militant force has grown bigger than imagined -- or too many innocent Afghans are being killed.
NATO says its forces, backed by the Afghan army, have killed more than 500 Taliban militants near Afghanistan's main southern city of Kandahar in Operation Medusa, a sweep launched Sept. 2.

The figures, if accurate, make it the deadliest battle since U.S. warplanes bombed the extremist militia, host of Osama bin Laden, out of power in late 2001.
"If they kill that many, the Taliban must have thousands of fighters on that front," said Mohammed Arbil, a former Northern Alliance commander. In the recent past, Taliban units have been described in terms of dozens or hundreds at most.

Official admits Iraq is in state of civil war 2006 BBC News

A senior official in the Iraqi government has for the first time said Iraq is in a state of civil war.The deputy interior minister, Hussein Ali Kamal, was speaking a day after suicide bombers killed at least 70 people at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad.A further 160 were injured when three suicide bombers struck the Bharatha mosque.

Abdullah Haziz Akim, the leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political grouping told a gathering of his supporters the aim of the attacks was to stop efforts to form a government of national unity.But he said everyone had to work together, including Iraq's Sunnis to try to unify the country.

Sunni extremists are being blamed for the attack and there is still real fear some Shiite groups will launch reprisals against the minority Sunni community

Sectarian Divide

As sectarian killings have risen in Iraq in recent months, Baghdad's neighbourhoods have become increasingly polarised between Sunnis and Shias.

Armed patrols protecting local areas have become common. Some are run by established militias, others are simply local men defending their own homes.

Residents of the Baghdad suburb of Shoula have seen their area transformed from a peaceful mixed Shia and Sunni nieghbourhood, to a tightly controlled Shia stronghold

Afghanistan: America's forgotten war

Pakistani government sources tell ABC News they have "credible reports" that Osama bin Laden and his entourage have moved down from high mountainous peaks along the Afghan border to a valley area 40 miles inside the Pakistan border.

The officials say the reports put bin Laden around Kohistan's Kumrat Valley.Officials said the reports were validated by the release of bin Laden's audio tape yesterday, which appears to have been recorded only two weeks earlier.

Such a quick turn-around suggests, say the officials, that bin Laden is much closer to civilization than he had been previously.

8-30-2006: Barney Frank: "Afghanistan ignored" To everyone's detriment, Bush ignores Afghanistan war "because acknowledging the war there would invalidate their charge that their political opponents are unwilling to take a forceful stand against terrorism."

9-5-2006: "Afghan Symbol for Change Becomes a Symbol of Failure" "Today, Little America is the epicenter of a Taliban resurgence and an explosion in drug cultivation that has claimed the lives of 106 American and NATO soldiers this year and doubled American casualty rates countrywide."

9-6-2006: "Afghanistan: Campaign against Taliban 'Causes Misery and Hunger'" Campaign against the Taliban has "inflicted lawlessness, misery and starvation on the Afghan people" as thousands flee the fighting only to suffer "dreadful conditions in refugee camps."

9-7-2006: "Taliban taking over" "Afghanistan's resurgent Taliban rebels - popular support for whom has blossomed like an opium poppy as a result of a humanitarian crisis aggravated by US counter-narcotics efforts - are sweeping the country, a new report says."

9-8-2006: 16 Dead in Bombing Near US Embassy in Afghanistan The US blamed Taliban Extremists for the deadliest attack since the 2001 rout of Taliban forces as a car bomb killed two US soldiers and 14 Afghanis in Kabul today. More than 20 Taliban fighters killed in fight with NATO forces.

9-9-2006: Re-Fighting Afghanistan: 30 Alleged Taliban Killed by NATO Troops NATO has reported "320 militants had been killed in the weeklong Taliban offensive in Kandahar province's Panjwayi district.
Those include at least 30 militants killed Saturday, and about as many on Friday, said Maj. Scott Lundy, a NATO spokesman. He said NATO and Afghan forces suffered no casualties."

9-10-2006: Re-Fighting Afghanistan: 100 Alleged Taliban Fighters Raid Government Compound, Suicide Cell Flourishes "More than 100 Taliban fighters raided a government compound in western Afghanistan early Sunday, while NATO and Afghan forces killed 94 Taliban fighters in airstrikes and ground attacks in southern Afghanistan, police and military alliance sources said."
The US military claims that a "suicide bomber cell" is active in Kabul.

9-13-2006: "Soldiers Reveal Horror of Afghan Campaign" "We did not expect the ferocity of the engagements. We also expected the Taliban to carry out hit and run raids. Instead we have often been fighting toe to toe, endless close-quarters combat. It has been exhausting."

9-13-2006: "TALIBAN GETS BURY LUCKY" "Taliban terror leaders who had gathered for a funeral - and were secretly being watched by an eye-in-the-sky American drone - dodged assassination because U.S. rules of engagement bar attacks in cemeteries, according to a shocking report."

9-13-2006: "AFGHANISTAN: Coalition Marches Into a Tight Corner" "The coalition forces in Afghanistan could find it easier to fly in than fly out of what is emerging as another trap for them."

9-14-2006: "NATO Faces Crisis as Call for Troops Goes Unanswered" "NATO was last night trying to head off a full-blown crisis of credibility as allied defence chiefs failed to offer any extra troops to help hard-pressed soldiers fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan."

9-14-2006: Suicide Bomber Cult Alive and Well In Pakistan To Arm Taliban In Afghanistan "Before long, Ali became one of the hundreds of potential suicide bombers that the commander of the Taliban, Mullah Dadullah, claimed to have at his command, ready to go out and take on the forces of the United States and its partners in Afghanistan."