The Taliban claimed credit for a suicide assault today in the northern province of Panjshir. A four-man team attacked the Provincial Reconstruction Team in the Rakha district. There are two differing accounts. The Associated Press reported that the Taliban team failed to breach the compound:
Militants assaulted the gate of an American base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, striking before dawn with rocket-propelled grenades and a vehicle packed with explosives.
The attackers failed to breach the gate of the base in Panjshir province’s Rakha district, though they did hit a security tower with a rocket-propelled grenade, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh.
Three of the men attacked on foot, shooting, while a fourth detonated the explosives-laden vehicle outside the gate, Jangalbagh said. All four of the attackers were killed and two security guards were wounded, he said. He did not provide nationalities for the security guards.
But Pajwhok Afghan News claimed that one of the attackers breached the gate and entered the PRT before being killed. The news agency also said one civilian was killed:
At least one civilian was killed and four others, including a foreigner, were injured in a predawn suicide bombing in central Panjsher province, an official said on Saturday.
The explosion occurred at the gate of the US Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) compound in Rokha district at 5:15am, Deputy Provincial Police Chief Brig. Gen. Ahmad Wali Saboori told Pajhwok Afghan News.
Four suicide bombers stormed the PRT office, Saboori said, adding that the first attacker blew himself up at the entrance, allowing three others to engage with the PRT guards. Two of the assailants were killed in the ensuing firefight, he explained, saying a third managed to gain entry to the office, but was soon shot dead by the guards.
Today’s attack is a propaganda coup for the Taliban as the terror group is now able to demonstrate to Afghans that its reach extends to every corner of the country. Panjshir province is the most secure in Afghanistan; attacks there are a rarity. The Taliban haven’t conducted a single suicide attack in Panjshir since the war began in 2001. The province is the home of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the famed Northern Alliance commander who was assassinated in a suicide attack in Takhar province just two days prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Under Massoud’s leadership the Panjshir Valley held out against both the Soviets and the Taliban.
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9 Comments
The Taliban claim 43 US troops were killed in this attack, along with 8 vehicles destroyed and the base lying in rubble and ruins.
http://shahamat-english.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11823:martyr-attack-in-panjshir-kills-43-us-invading-troops&catid=1:news&Itemid=2
“Today’s attack is a propaganda coup for the Taliban as the terror groups is now able to demonstrate to Afghans that their reach extends to every corned of the country. Panjshir province is the most secure in Afghanistan; attacks there are a rarity”
Not exactly, Bill. The Taliban’s statistics file for Sept. 2011 shows that statistics for Daykundi is non-existent. I asked why and they say that’s because Daykundi has had dozens of villages bombarded, and the U.S. military has set up about 9 FOB’s there in place of the villages along with hundreds of outposts and observation posts in key areas, and NATO will kill more civilians if the Taliban even try to charge an outpost or fire missiles at them.
Actualy, Daykundi has had a Taliban problem for some time; there are Pashtun pockets there. This forced USSF set up militias in the area to keep the problem at bay. So while there may not be any attacks for September, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.
The Taliban are clearly exaggerating ISAF presence.
Soccer:
“I asked why and they say that’s because Daykundi has had dozens of villages bombarded, and the U.S. military has set up about 9 FOB’s there in place of the villages along with hundreds of outposts and observation posts in key areas, and NATO will kill more civilians if the Taliban even try to charge an outpost or fire missiles at them.”
I wonder about that source, given that the tactics would run completely against Coalition ROE and COIN doctrine. Sound more like Taliban propaganda.
My2Cents:
Yes, the information is from the Afghan Taliban, from the AMEF forums. You can ask them questions on there if you are an accepted member, which I am.
They also said “The Mujahideen Of Afghanistan are planning something very special for Daykundi, just watch… Inshallah.”
They also say the rules of engagement and human rights are all a sham, just so the U.S. can kill more Muslims in cold blood through war crimes and heinous actions.
@ Soccer
Its always interesting to see the Taliban propaganda but I’m afraid I do not understand this bit:
NATO will kill more civilians if the Taliban even try to charge an outpost or fire missiles at them.
Do they mean NATO would do this in the ensuing firefights as collateral damage and therefore they do not attack to avoid civilian casualties (not something they appear concerned with elsewhere) or that NATO would do this in retribution?
They mean that NATO would do this in retribution, and due to the fact that “the invaders are no match for the Mujahideen.”
So, let’s say they fired a missile at a base. In turn, NATO would start bombarding civilian houses or raiding villagers. And since they have literally hundreds of bases and outposts there, it would be easy for them to do. The Taliban claim that the population is literally trapped by NATO and they do not want to attack NATO for fear that the innocent villagers become “martyrs”.
Oh, its all due to attack by Taliban in Panjshir, mega deaths of Nato forces, that Nato put army on Pakistan’s border along North Waziristan, in a move to pressure Pakistan to take action against Haqqani Network as they think they are Haqqani Network who are conducting so destructive attacks on Nato, but it is wrong approach by Nato.
It is fact that all problems for Nato are within Kabul’s territory not from Pakistan.
Pak army operation in North Waziristan, mean a war and end of US & Nato loyals in Pakistan’s army and Politics and consequences are ….. so that no words can cover them.
Long war journal is a source of true information for me especially, when Pakistani media is lack of true news of Afghanistan.
Here, my vision is this, that all readers and commenters, must analize news in such way, that actual problems and solutions must be surfaced and even no single innocent is suffered due to this long war, either from Nato or Taliban, after all famlies on both sides are put in life lasting pains. We must work for happies not hates.