Al Qaeda Returns To Afghanistan
Source: neotommy
Gunfight and airstrike in Korengal Valley (Photo Courtesy U.S. Army)
Eighteen months after a controversial U.S. pullout from the insurgent hotbed that is the Korengal Valley, in northeast Afghanistan, new reports indicate that al Qaeda has surged back to power in the area.
"Over the past six to eight months, al Qaeda has begun setting up training camps, hideouts and operations bases in the remote mountains along Afghanistan's northeastern border with Pakistan," according to Afghan and Taliban sources with whom the Wall Street Journal spoke.
Once reduced to a couple dozen members, al Qaeda has apparently grown.
United States military forces had been skirmishing with insurgent forces -- both Taliban and al Qaeda -- in the region for as long as U.S.-led coalition troops were deployed there.
Dubbed "The Valley of Death" by soldiers who served in the region, the Korengal has been a testing ground for American counterinsurgency strategy.
Some counterinsurgency policy experts argued that the U.S. presence in the Valley was the root cause of locals taking up arms and fighting against foreign occupiers. Withdrawal, by that line of thought, would reduce the insurgent presence in the country.
Al Qaeda seems to have proved that theory wrong, dealing a blow to any perceived progress against the al Qaeda figurehead Osama bin Laden.
With bin Laden’s whereabouts still unknown, and al Qaeda insurgents proving to be quite resilient, the strategy of the United States mission in the country has come under question.
"The news of Al Qaeda’s resurgence shows is that both approaches to the war — withdrawal and escalation — fail to focus on the right objectives," wrote Joshua Foust, a fellow at the American Security Project. "The number of troops in Afghanistan doesn’t matter nearly as much as what they’re doing."
President Obama increased the number of U.S. boots on the ground in December 2010 by 30,000, and has struggled with establishing a conditions-based timetable for withdrawal. The resurgence of al Qaeda certainly complicates any potential gradual drawdown of troops that may have begun in July of this year.
The situation in Afghanistan, especially in the east of the country, is highly interwoven with that in the tribal regions of Pakistan.
Despite the United States CIA runs a covert drone strike program in northwest Pakistan that targets militants, the Obama administration’s report on the AfPak region released Tuesday concluded that there is “no clear path toward defeating the insurgency in Pakistan, despite the unprecedented and sustained deployment of over 147,000 [Pakistani] forces.”
There is speculation that Osama bin Laden is hiding in North Waziristan, in the mountainous border region near the Afghan border.
With al Qaeda insurgents gaining strength in Afghanistan and maintaining a stronghold in Pakistan, stability in the area could continue to be a major policy headache for those leading wartime operations from Washington to Kabul.
Gunfight and airstrike in Korengal Valley (Photo Courtesy U.S. Army)
"Over the past six to eight months, al Qaeda has begun setting up training camps, hideouts and operations bases in the remote mountains along Afghanistan's northeastern border with Pakistan," according to Afghan and Taliban sources with whom the Wall Street Journal spoke.
Once reduced to a couple dozen members, al Qaeda has apparently grown.
United States military forces had been skirmishing with insurgent forces -- both Taliban and al Qaeda -- in the region for as long as U.S.-led coalition troops were deployed there.
Dubbed "The Valley of Death" by soldiers who served in the region, the Korengal has been a testing ground for American counterinsurgency strategy.
Some counterinsurgency policy experts argued that the U.S. presence in the Valley was the root cause of locals taking up arms and fighting against foreign occupiers. Withdrawal, by that line of thought, would reduce the insurgent presence in the country.
Al Qaeda seems to have proved that theory wrong, dealing a blow to any perceived progress against the al Qaeda figurehead Osama bin Laden.
With bin Laden’s whereabouts still unknown, and al Qaeda insurgents proving to be quite resilient, the strategy of the United States mission in the country has come under question.
"The news of Al Qaeda’s resurgence shows is that both approaches to the war — withdrawal and escalation — fail to focus on the right objectives," wrote Joshua Foust, a fellow at the American Security Project. "The number of troops in Afghanistan doesn’t matter nearly as much as what they’re doing."
President Obama increased the number of U.S. boots on the ground in December 2010 by 30,000, and has struggled with establishing a conditions-based timetable for withdrawal. The resurgence of al Qaeda certainly complicates any potential gradual drawdown of troops that may have begun in July of this year.
The situation in Afghanistan, especially in the east of the country, is highly interwoven with that in the tribal regions of Pakistan.
Despite the United States CIA runs a covert drone strike program in northwest Pakistan that targets militants, the Obama administration’s report on the AfPak region released Tuesday concluded that there is “no clear path toward defeating the insurgency in Pakistan, despite the unprecedented and sustained deployment of over 147,000 [Pakistani] forces.”
There is speculation that Osama bin Laden is hiding in North Waziristan, in the mountainous border region near the Afghan border.
With al Qaeda insurgents gaining strength in Afghanistan and maintaining a stronghold in Pakistan, stability in the area could continue to be a major policy headache for those leading wartime operations from Washington to Kabul.
Comments