Slightly old story, but still illustrative of the general problem facing military strategy in the next few years...
WTF are we going to do with this Afghanistan place? As bad as the Korean War!
This is from later when a detatchment of Royal Marines entered the area later on...
http://video.google.com/...
and here is a list of operations from last year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
and a Guardian article about the battle in the first video.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Here's a blurb on the level of casualties at Sangin:
Other British units have fought and suffered losses over the summer in that outwardly unremarkable town of 30,000 people, but none fought longer and took more casualties than A Company and the few dozen non-paras grouped with it. For the best part of two months, they experienced the kind of vicious combat British troops haven't seen since Korea. Roughly every seventh man in the original 65-strong company was killed or wounded. One platoon, the 1st, lost almost a third of its fighting strength: not quite D-Day levels, where airborne units were halved by combat, but getting close.
Royal Marines think they are as 'ard as the Paras but...
...here they are running away!
There appears to be a bottomless pit of opponents in Afghanistan. Quite deadly too.
The events described fit in with the footage of actions in 2006 and early 2007 going on into December 2007. The latest combat took place in Musa Qala.
Musa Qala is just one flashpoint in the wider Helmand province campaign, a coalition effort to dislodge the Taliban from the volatile province, largely led by British forces. The battle to retake the town sparked conflict in adjoining areas. In November 2007, when reconnaissance patrols began, "vicious" Taliban attacks were launched in Sangin Valley, Helmand province, to the south, including one which saw Royal Marine Commandos endure two days of rocket and mortar fire. Just three days before the main assault, on 4 December, British forces suffered a fatality to the north of the village of Sangin, when trooper Jack Sadler was killed by a roadside bomb. The week prior to the assault saw a variety of other engagements Helmand: the British confronted sustained attack near the Kajaki Dam, northeast of Sangin; further west, Estonian, British and American troops were engaged near the town of Now Zad; Danish forces under British command were attacked in the town of Gereshk.
In the days after the main battle was launched, Colonel Eaton confirmed that the Taliban were attempting to create pressure in other areas but that attacks on British bases had been repulsed. One Taliban commander noted: "We have launched attacks in Sangin and in Sarwan Kala ... We have orders to attack the British everywhere." When the principal Taliban retreat from Musa Qala occurred fighting continued elsewhere: on the eleventh and twelfth, retreating Taliban militants attacked a government centre in Sangin. They were repulsed with 50 killed, according to the Afghan Defence Ministry. American, British, and other NATO special forces were specifically deployed to prevent the Taliban from withdrawing north into Baghran District, and east into Orūzgān Province, their traditional refuge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
It's quite amazing to see how up for a fight the locals appear to be. What do we do with the place?