US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told troops in southern Afghanistan yesterday to brace for a tough fight as generals readied plans to battle the Taliban in Kandahar.
Gates was on the second day of a visit to review a surge of US and NATO troops set to bring the number of foreign forces in Afghanistan to 150,000 by the summer in a last-ditch effort to end a war now into a ninth year.
He visited an US Army battalion that suffered heavy losses last year in the fight against entrenched militants and based 48km north of Kandahar, a bastion of the Taliban’s insurgency.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“Here in the environs of Kandahar, you’re in an area that once again is going to be important,” Gates told troops from the Fifth Stryker Brigade Combat Team, who have succeeded in pushing back the Taliban in one area.
“Once again you will be the tip of the spear,” he said.
His comments were the latest indication of US-led preparations to take on the Taliban’s spiritual heartland.
On Monday, Gates called a major operation under way in the Marjah area of Helmand Province “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, said US and NATO troops could take on the Taliban in Kandahar as early as this summer when enough reinforcements are on the ground.
Gates paid tribute to heavy losses suffered by the battalion at the outpost last year, with at least 21 killed and 62 wounded in action.
“You’ve had a very tough tour here,” Gates told the troops. “You came came into an area that was totally controlled by the Taliban, you fought for a critical battle space and bled for it.”
General David Rodriguez, deputy commander of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, told reporters traveling with Gates that the battalion would now focus on securing roads around Kandahar.
Gates told reporters earlier he wanted to hear “ground truths” from soldiers in the field about the war, their equipment and the effect of stepped-up efforts to counter deadly homemade bombs — the Taliban’s weapon of choice.
The Pentagon has speeded up the production of mine-resistant armored vehicles specially designed for Afghan’s rugged terrain to try to better protect soldiers from the improvised explosives.
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.
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