January 15, 2006
The Guardian

US-led Troops Launch Largest Assault on Taliban Since 2001

by Declan Walsh

An American-led force of 11,000 troops launches the biggest anti-Taliban offensive in Afghanistan since 2001 today, concentrating their firepower on an area under British control.

British, American, Canadian and Afghan troops will sweep across insurgent strongholds in four southern provinces rocked by a wave of Taliban violence in recent months, US officials said.

The ambitious offensive, named Operation Mountain Thrust, aims to cripple the strengthening insurgency before Nato takes command of southern Afghanistan next month. . . .

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VIDEO: "Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death," ACFTV, February 4, 2003]

VIDEO: This is a rare and damning insight into what US forces are doing in that other "war on terror." Away from the eyes of the media, humiliation and brutalisation tactics similar to those of used at Abu Ghraib are practiced here with impunity.--"Taliban Country," 2004

Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, "A Rebuilding Plan Full of Cracks," Washington Post, November 20, 2005

[The new Taliban are deploying tactics that have torn Iraq to shreds, and Afghanistan is seeing a surge in the previously unknown practice of suicide bombings 25 in four months. This is seen as the reintroduction of al-Qa'ida into Afghanistan a devastating example of how over-extending the "war on terror" into Iraq is rebounding on the West with vengeance.--Kim Sengupta, "Remember Afghanistan?," Independent, January 17, 2006]

[ . . . thousands of protesters rallied before his arrival, shouting "Death to Bush"--"Bush makes first visit to Afghanistan," Guardian, March 1, 2006]

Syed Saleem Shahzad, "Taliban's new commander ready for a fight," Asia Times, May 20, 2006

Declan Walsh, "US faces new challenge after riots in Kabul puncture illusion of calm," Guardian, May 30, 2006

M K Bhadrakumar, "The day that changed Afghanistan," Asia Times, June 3, 2006

[Shouting "Death to America" and clutching Kalashnikovs, they brandished the poster of an unlikely hero: Ahmed Shah Massoud, the assassinated anti-Taliban commander who in death has been transformed into the symbol of resistance to the US-backed government.--Antonia Francis, "Afghans rally to the Lion to oust America," Sunday Times, June 4, 2006]

Declan Walsh, "Beaten, robbed and exiled: life on the frontline of someone else's war: Villagers caught in crossfire between the Taliban and government forces," Guardian, June 20, 2006

Eric Margolis, "The War in Afghanistan is Only Beginning," ericmargolis.com, July 4, 2006

Kate Clark, "Talking to the Taliban," New Statesman, July 17, 2006

Sarah Chayes, "The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban," Penguin Press HC (August 17, 2006)

[ . . . there were U.S. Special Forces that were embedded in a group, a kind of tribal militia, which was directed to put pressure on Kandahar from the south. President Karzai also had U.S. Special Forces with him. He was coming down toward Kandahar from the north. The Taliban surrendered to him. They left. Al-Qaeda left the city. The city was in the hands of President Karzai and his chosen representative, and then these U.S. Special Forces urged this warlord to take the city by force from President Karzai.--VIDEO Sarah Chayes Interview: "Life in Afghanistan After the Taliban and Why She Left NPR," democracynow.org, October 10, 2006]