NATO Enters Musa Qala
NATO forces, accompanied by Afghan troops, made it to the center of Musa Qala today. The Taliban have retreated to the city center, pressed in on all sides by a long-awaited NATO offensive on the only major piece of ground held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The liberation of the city will come after 10 months of Taliban rule:
Afghan troops Monday entered the town of Musa Qala which had been captured by Taliban rebels 10 months ago and become a key insurgent base, the NATO-led force said."The ANA (Afghan National Army) have entered the district centre. They are in the centre of the town," a spokesman for the NATO-led force, Major Charles Anthony, told AFP.
The Afghan defence ministry issued a statement saying the Afghan and NATO troops had entered the Musa Qala district, of which the town is the centre, and had started cleaning up operations.
Musa Qala became a strategic base of operations for the Taliban after the British allowed the city to fall into their hands. In February, the Taliban took advantage of a British withdrawal, based on an agreement with tribal leaders to provide security for Musa Qala rather than NATO or Afghan forces. Ever since, they have used Musa Qala to conduct a massive opium trade and for military operations as part of their effort to retake control of Afghanistan.
Losing Musa Qala, therefore, creates big problems for the Taliban. It not only cuts off a great deal of money that they desperately need, it pushes them back out of Afghanistan. The Musa Qala contingent can't get back across the border to Pakistan at the moment, thanks to the brutal Afghan winter, and they can't resupply for the same reason. That makes it much more difficult to conduct the kind of operations they need to hold territory, and it puts them back into the position of conducting al-Qaeda style suicide attacks on civilians instead.
Despite the AFP's description of the Taliban's efforts as a "spiraling insurgency", they have had a very bad 2007. The capture of Musa Qala was their one bright spot, and they're about to lose it. Their vaunted spring offensive disappeared in a hail of bullets from helicopter gunships that sprang up in every attack. The Taliban have had to remain in Pakistan all year long, hunkered down and watching the momentum slip through their fingers. That's why they have turned in desperation to suicide-bomb attacks.
The Musa Qala contingent will likely go out in the same manner. Expect to see a flurry of explosions as the NATO coalition forces squeeze the life out of the Taliban's Musa Qala regime.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on December 10, 2007 6:16 AM | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)
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