NATO, Afghan Forces Launch Offensive

24 July 2008

NATO and Afghan forces have launched an offensive against militants to regain control of a remote district in southern Afghanistan.

207th Afghan National Army (207th ANA) Corps Combat Support Battalion soldiers

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) says troops began an operation Wednesday in Ghazni province, after militants took over the Ajiristan district on Monday. ISAF says some militants in the area were killed during a coordinated airstrike.

Meanwhile, a district police chief was killed when a roadside bomb struck his convoy in Nangarhar province.

In Wardak province, the U.S.-led coalition says troops killed militants during a search in the Saydabad district Tuesday.

In Washington, a Defense Department spokesman said the decision to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan will be left to the next presidential administration.

U.S. commanders have been asking for three more combat brigades, or about 10,000 troops, to help confront rising violence in Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, the top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the U.S. does not have the man-power to send urgently needed military reinforcements to Afghanistan. He said U.S. troops are all heavily committed in Iraq.

In other news, coalition and Afghan forces killed groups of enemy fighters during operations in Afghanistan this week, military officials said.

While coalition forces yesterday searched compounds in the Sayed Abad district of Wardak province for a Taliban commander, a cadre of militants inside a barricaded house attacked troops with grenades, machine guns and small-arms fire.

Coalition forces fought back using small arms and grenades, and they called in an air strike, killing an unknown number of the enemy fighters, military officials said.

Combined forces also came under ambush during a July 21 operation in the Maruf district of Kandahar province. As troops patrolled the area, militants attacked from a fortified position, using small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The combined force returned small-arms fire and called for close-air support. The retaliation killed several militants and destroyed their attack position, military officials said.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan on July 21, Afghan national security forces and coalition forces observed a group of enemy fighters amassing along a ridgeline in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province. As the armed fighters moved into fortified fighting positions, the combined forces engaged them with small-arms fire and called for close-air support, killing the militants.

No Afghan or coalition forces were injured or killed during the engagement, military officials said.