Gates confers with commanders in south Afghanistan

by Dan De Luce Dan De Luce – Tue Mar 9, 2010, 4:43 am ET

KANDAHAR AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFP) –

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday held talks with commanders on a major ongoing offensive in southern Afghanistan and plans to move against the Taliban in Kandahar.

Gates flew into Kandahar Air Base from Kabul, where he called an operation in the Marjah area of Helmand "only one of many battles still to come in a much longer campaign focused on protecting the people of Afghanistan."

The overall ground commander, US General Stanley McChrystal, has said that US and NATO troops could take on the Taliban militia in their strongholds of Kandahar this summer when enough reinforcements are on the ground.

There are approximately 121,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, but that number is expected to swell to 150,000 over the coming months as part of a new US-led strategy to bring a swift end to a war, now into a ninth year.

Gates was expected to meet British Major General Nick Carter, the NATO commander in southern Afghanistan, but as he conferred with officers, an alarm sounded at one point for a rocket attack -- a common occurrence on the base.

A few minutes later they gave the all clear.

Gates awarded the prestigious silver star to two army helicopter pilots, including one whose Chinook survived a hit by a rocket-propelled grenade as it was evacuating five wounded soldiers.

The number of coalition forces has been growing around Kandahar, the old spiritual capital of the Taliban who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until the 2001 US-led invasion, with about 30,000 troops now deployed in the area. Related Article: Kandahar operation in summer, says US commander

Although Kandahar was not under direct Taliban control, it was "under a menacing Taliban presence particularly in the districts around it," McChrystal said Monday, saying the planned offensive would take a gradual approach.

"There won't be a D-Day that is climactic, it will be a rising tide of security as it comes," he said.

About 6,000 of the 30,000 additional troops pledged by President Barack Obama in December have arrived in Afghanistan, Gates said, with the rest due to deploy by the end of August. The south is the main focus of the surge.

It is Gates' first visit to Afghanistan since NATO and Afghan troops swept into Marjah, a former Taliban stronghold in the southern province of Helmand, in an assault seen as a pivotal test of Obama's bid to turn around the war.

Gates discussed the offensive -- billed as the biggest since the 2001 US-led invasion -- with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and McChrystal while in Kabul, as well as operations planned later this year.

On Monday, Gates said there were "grounds for optimism" with Afghans joining the armed forces in large numbers and improved ties with Islamabad producing "tangible results", a reference to Pakistan's crackdown on Taliban extremists.

Karzai said he was going ahead with plans to hold a peace conference to encourage Taliban and other insurgent leaders to lay down their arms but he said there could be no reconciliation with members of the Al-Qaeda network.

Gates said he supported Karzai's efforts to promote reconciliation but said a peace deal would probably come only when insurgent commanders realised the odds "are no longer in their favour."

Number of U.S tanks destroyed in Marjah and other regions of Helmand stands at 8

By Qari Yousuf Ahmadi HELMAND, Mar. 07, 2010 -

There are reports from Helmand province that the number of U.S tanks eliminated as a result of mine blasts in Marjah and other parts of Helmand has risen to eight pushing the American deaths toll to dozens throughout Saturday, Mar. 06. Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 March 2010 20:52 ) Read more...   Mar07

At least a dozen die as two U.S armored tanks hit by mine blasts in Washer district

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Blasts hit coalitions' military vehicles in Badghis, 6 soldiers die

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05 03 10 U.S combat patrol attacked in Laghaman