Daily Times Monitor (PK): Afghan Taliban have learned modern warfare

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Afghan Taliban have learned modern warfare

* Imagination, greater firepower and strengthening of Taliban’s ideological bond leaves coalition facing higher casualty rates

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Allied forces fighting the Taliban have discovered another problem in their fight against the rising insurgency in Afghanistan – that the Taliban have learnt the tactics of modern warfare, political commentator Robert Frisk writes.

“The Taliban are much, much more stood up. They are much tighter, much more professional, much more together,” an intelligence officer in Kabul told the Guardian earlier this year.

For months, military planners in Afghanistan had been preparing themselves for a bloody summer. A number of officers had said significant casualties were inevitable in the traditional fighting season between July and August. The allied forces have become wary of the Taliban’s increasing use of “asymmetric tactics”, such as booby traps, roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

But the operation by US troops - supported by helicopters, jets and unmanned armed drones - makes it clear why the Taliban tend to do so, because if they do not stay out of the way, they would be killed, just like thousands have been.

But the coalition troops become vulnerable once they settle in an area. Needing supplies and the need to tend to patrol duties, the troops are perfect targets for hit and run tactics of the Taliban, who have polished and honed their ambush strategies perfectly.

Troops fighting the Taliban say the insurgents now show a vastly improved ability to coordinate fire, as volleys of rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) now rain down during engagements.

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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C07%5C12%5Cstory_12-7-2009_pg7_16