Early last week there were reports that a Taliban force had overrun a local police station in Chora, in the Uruzgan province of Southern Afghanistan. The Taliban have claimed that they, not the Government in Kabul are in control of the South. The is the very province where Hamid Karzai rallied his troops back in 2001 as part of the US effort to topple the Taliban regime after the 9/11 attacks (See Gary Berntsen's Jawbreaker and Gary Schroen's First In).
This weekend, US and Afghan forces retook Chora.
Afghan and Coalition forces conducted a successful air-assault operation in the Chora District on June 2, securing the district for the Government of Afghanistan following recent reports of Taliban infiltration.
The joint operation was conducted to investigate claims that Taliban extremists had overrun local police in the district center of Chora, Uruzgan Province .
The assault force met limited resistance of small-arms fire from Taliban extremists attempting to flea the district center, about 40 kilometers northwest of Tarin Khowt, the provincial capitol. Coalition air power engaged and killed several insurgents armed with recoilless rifles and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers.
Bill Roggio, reporting from Afganistan
“Insurgents may have attacked the police headquarters, but they never had the capability to control Chora, as evident of their immediate retreat in the face of Afghan and Coalition forces,” said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, the spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force – 76.
Lt. Col. Fitzpatrick is correct, as the Taliban cannot hold territory once taken. A main concern of military officers and security personnel in Kabul is the lack of military and police assets needed to secure the southeastern provinces almost five years after the fall of the Taliban. By all accounts, the police, who are poorly armed and trained, and often are not paid in months, are considered fierce fighters. The security equation in southeastern Afghanistan is beginning to change as NATO implements Stage 3 of the security deployment, and is pushing over 9,000 additional soldiers into southeastern Afghanistan.
