A Successful Operation in Afghanistan

70 Taliban have been killed in Afghanistan, three miles from the Pakistan border in a village near a crossing spot. A bomb making factory was destroyed along with armaments.

 The AP report gets this right, but their exaggerations of the Taliban’s failed offensive this year — calling this the “worst since…” etc. are getting old. Looking back at their own reports they can verify that US and Nato forces were averaging 1500 to 3500 Taliban killed per month last year. It was not unusual to read about 50-70 Taliban killed two to four times per week last July through September.

Compare that to this year’s total of 4500 for an 8 month period and you might get the idea that the AP is delusional, and you might be right. The fighting this year is pinning the Taliban right against the border across the board, last year the fighting ranged across the whole Southern half of Afghanistan. For the AP to pimp this year’s Taliban offensive as stronger than last year’s is suspect and scurilious.

The easy way to check the veracity of this is to visit Centaf, check their Airpower Summaries then and now. You will notice that back then there were many more direct engagements of the enemies,  but now you have many more “show of force” flights and escorts. You don’t see as many “direct hits, thus ending the engagement” summaries this year as last.