2 US Soldiers, British Soldier killed in Afghanistan War Attacks, NATO Media Control Continues, July 23, 2009

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US envoy in Afghanistan's troubled south: local official

July 23, 2009

KABUL (AFP) –

US regional envoy Richard Holbrooke arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday and headed to southern Helmand province, where recently deployed US Marines are battling Taliban fighters, a local official said.

US President Barack Obama's troubleshooter for Afghanistan and Pakistan travelled from Islamabad, where government officials had expressed concern that a fresh offensive in the Afghan south would push rebels over the border.

"Richard Holbrooke was in Helmand today (Thursday). He visited his troops, and is right now meeting with the governor," Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand Governor Mohammad Ghulam Mangal, told AFP.

A spokesman at the US embassy in Kabul was unable to comment on Holbrooke's whereabouts Thursday.

There are about 90,000 foreign troops -- mainly US, British and Canadian -- deployed in Afghanistan on a mission to stabilise the country with the Taliban resistance at its deadliest since the 2001 US-led invasion.

On July 2, the US military launched one of its biggest offensives in Afghanistan, flying 4,000 US Marines in to battle against the Taliban in Helmand ahead of presidential elections here on August 20.

Pakistani officials have expressed worries that the US military action will force militants into Pakistan and further inflame the troubled region of Baluchistan, which borders Helmand.

Leaving Pakistan on Thursday, Holbrooke said the United States was working to avoid mistakes that allowed vanquished Taliban in Afghanistan to escape into Pakistan after they were toppled and mastermind a deadly insurgency.

2 US troops, 1 Briton killed in Afghanistan

AP, Jul 22, 2009, 3:37 pm ET

KABUL –

Bombs killed two U.S. troops and one Briton in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, as the death toll mounts in the bloodiest month of the war.

The NATO-led force released no other details about the three deaths, including the troops' military branch or where the attack occurred. Tech Sgt. Chuck Marsh confirmed that two troops were American.

The British Ministry of Defense announced later that a soldier from the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards had been killed in a separate blast. The soldier was the 19th member of Britain's 9,000-strong force to be killed in Afghanistan this month.

Those deaths have triggered a national debate in Britain over the conduct of the war.

Southern Helmand province is the site of the largest U.S. Marine operation since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban regime. Some 4,000 Marines are taking part. They have met little resistance from Taliban fighters but have had to contend with dozens of roadside bombs hidden in the region's dirt roads.

July has been the deadliest month for U.S. and NATO forces. Wednesday's deaths raised the American toll to 34, surpassing the 28 who were killed in two months last summer.

The U.S. has close to 60,000 troops in Afghanistan, a record number. President Barack Obama has increased the U.S. focus on Afghanistan as American forces draw out of Iraq.

Afghanistan moves troops to south, clashes in north

By Sayed Salahuddin and Hamid Shalizi Sayed Salahuddin And Hamid Shalizi –

Wed Jul 22, 2009, 3:18 pm ET

KABUL (Reuters) –

Afghanistan is repositioning forces to the south after complaints too few are involved in major U.S. and British offensives against the Taliban, officials said on Wednesday, even as clashes erupted in the north.

Afghan troops battled a group of Taliban fighters dug into a valley in northern Kunduz on Wednesday, Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi said. He said fighters loyal to an Uzbek leader had entered the north recently.

A convoy belonging to a minor presidential candidate, former Taliban commander Mullah Salam Rocketi, was ambushed as he returned to Kabul after campaigning in northern Baghlan and one of his campaign officials was killed, Rocketi told Reuters.

Rocketi, an army commander during Taliban rule who renounced the militants after their overthrow to become a minister of parliament, was unhurt. He took his name because he often fired rocket-propelled grenades at occupying Soviet troops.

Two U.S. troops were killed by a roadside bomb in the south on Wednesday, the U.S. military said, taking to at least 30 the number killed in combat in July, the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces.

Another member of the NATO-led force was killed in a separate blast but the nationality was not confirmed in Afghanistan. Britain's Ministry of Defense said a British soldier had been killed.

WEAKNESSES

The aim of the operations in Helmand is to clear the vast province of Taliban figheres and hold the ground it wins, something overstretched NATO forces have so far been unable to do.

But the offensives underscored weaknesses in the Afghan security forces, with only about 650 fighting alongside some 4,000 U.S. Marines and a similar number of British troops in the major opium producing center.

Brigadier General Lawrence Nicholson, commander of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, complained about a week after Operation Strike of the Sword began in Helmand that there were not enough Afghan troops involved. "You can do the math," he said.

He said many more were needed to build relations with local leaders, a major part of a new counter-insurgency strategy under General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and identify Taliban members hiding among residents.

Azimi blamed the media for complaints about the paucity of Afghan troops fighting in Helmand and said security forces were stretched to their limit combating Taliban fighters across the country.

He said an extra battalion of about 700 troops was being sent to join the fight in Helmand. Afghanistan already has more than 5,000 troops in the province, he said.

"We are sending an extra battalion to Helmand, it is en route and, with its arrival, the number of Afghan forces will exceed 6,000 in Helmand," Azimi told a media conference.

Afghanistan's army totals about 95,000 troops. The United States has about 58,000 troops in the country, with another 39,000 from NATO and other non.-U.S. coalition members.

Washington plans to increase its troop levels to 68,000 by year's end, more than double the 32,000 at the end of 2008.

Nicholson has said there were also problems with the quality of Afghan police units. Under Obama's new strategy, 4,000 more troops are also being sent to train Afghan security forces.

Attacks have spiked across the country since the operations in Helmand began.

U.S. and British troops in Helmand and elsewhere have so far borne the brunt of the Taliban backlash. Record death tolls have prompted questions in London and Washington about strategies in Afghanistan and how long troops should remain.

In Berlin, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said about 300 German soldiers had joined a week-long offensive against the Taliban around Kunduz.

(Additional reporting by Erik Kirschbaum in BERLIN; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)