Operation Mountain Thrust: British Pushing Hard in Afghanistan
by John Little on 19/06/2006Really promising news out of The Scotsman:
British forces have pushed deeper and faster than expected into lawless territory in southern Afghanistan, setting up outposts in towns that have seen no security presence for decades.Brigadier Ed Butler, commander of the British contingent in Afghanistan, said troops were two months ahead of schedule moving into the remote mountains in Helmand province. The original plan was to move into those towns in August.
“We’ve done far more than we thought we’d do, we’ve challenged insecurity in far more places,” Brigadier Butler said. “This is a tactical success which we’ve exploited. A couple of months ago, northern Helmand looked really threatening. It looks less threatening now.”
Operation Mountain Thrust appears to be going extremely well:
The massive force of 10,000 Afghan forces and coalition soldiers marks the largest deployment yet for a single mission in Afghanistan.The operation involves 3,300 Britons, 2,200 Canadians, 2,300 U.S. conventional and special forces, and 3,500 Afghans.
The operation is timed to coincide with the upcoming transfer this summer of command in the south from the U.S.-led coalition to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
The offensive is focused on southern Uruzgan and northeastern Helmand provinces, where the U.S. military says most of the militant forces have gathered.
Operations also will be conducted in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and Zabul.
“The Taliban developed quarters up in the rural areas in the mountains. The whole goal of this is to get the coalition troops up into these mountains to push them out,” Chao said.
There are some updates (not enough) on the operation at the Combined Forces Command website.
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