Word: nato
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...small base, made up of soldiers from the Tenth Mountain 2-4 Infantry, Charlie Company 1-4 Infantry Regiment and Romanian troops from Task Force Calugareni, which took control of Zabul on 31 July when the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took command of southern Afghanistan from the U.S. The mission of the troops at the base is to provide security to the district. Until a few weeks ago that meant daily patrols, visiting villages, checking up on reports of Taliban activity, and generally making their presence known. But these days FOB Maizan has had to limit those...
...Increased Taliban activity in the area means patrols are more dangerous - IEDs have been placed on roads and mortar attacks are becoming more common - and essential support resources, such as helicopters, have been monopolized by Operation Medusa, NATO's main thrust against the Taliban in nearby Kandahar. That leaves troops at Maizan spending more time confined to base...
...situation in Maizan reflects the reason NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer last week asked member states to send another 2,500 troops to take on the rising insurgency. McLaughlin would love to have more troops in Zabul, but he says the province is still not understaffed. "Is Zabul going to change a little because of Operation Medusa? Yes. But it makes sense to take a risk in Zabul in order to make our point in Kandahar." Lt. Col Daniel Petrescu, who heads Task Force Calugareni in Qalat, adds that "where Kandahar goes, goes Afghanistan. So by stabilizing Kandahar...
...bolstered by billions of dollars in Western aid and the firepower of 18,000 U.S. troops, Karzai won Afghanistan's first presidential election in a half-century. Since then, nothing has gone right. Taliban guerrillas have overrun swaths of territory in the south, sparking a battle for control with NATO forces that has left 55 Western troops dead in five weeks. Squabbles between Western military commanders and the Karzai government over antidrug policies have allowed poppy growth to reach an all-time peak. It's a sign of how much security has deteriorated in Kabul that Karzai's movements...
...With NATO still finding its feet just a month after taking control of the south from U.S. forces, the Taliban appears determined to do its utmost to test the appetite of the Western alliance for a sustained and messy counterinsurgency campaign. But Knittig insists that the alliance will not be swayed. "NATO has signed on the line for a long-term commitment to Afghanistan...