Taking the Offensive Means Casualties

There are going to be more casualties when an army goes on the offensive, because that means exposing oneself to enemy fire, but what has happened in the past month has been a major assault on terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq. While the US media predictably tracks the death toll of US forces, much less attention is given to all the insurgents, terrorists, and thugs captured or killed in the wide ranging operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The latest to fall was a Taliban bigwig. The Telegraph reports:

American intelligence named the dead commander as Mullah Najibullah, who, they said, had been responsible for leading attacks against British forces in and around the town of Sangin, in Helmand.

The attack, and four other missions against suspected Taliban compounds, are clearly effective, but the stakes are high. Coalition attacks on mistakenly identified targets here, as in Iraq, have left dozens of civilians dead and wounded and can act as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists.

But Capt Staley said he had no qualms about pressing home such attacks until no one was left standing and claimed that American pilots were more effective than their British Apache counterparts, who he said flew higher and were less ruthless in finishing off their targets. "The Brits are good but they don't have the extreme aggression that we do."

Lt Denton, too, believed they were striking the right balance.

"Usually, right before the engagement, you stop and think, 'Are you sure?', because you are going to be taking someone's life, but everything happens so fast you have to make quick decisions."

On Monday, the Apaches struck again, killing 12 Taliban whom they had caught in the open near Qalat, in Zabul province.

Lt Denton and Capt Staley were in one of the two-man aircraft, escorting two Black Hawk helicopters, when they spotted eight motorcycles, with a rider and passenger on each. It seemed unusual and the Apache broke away to take a closer look.

Dropping to 200ft, it swooped close to the motorcyclists - and the two men could not believe their luck: some of the passengers were holding the parts of a long-barrelled heavy machine-gun.

Six of the bikes slewed to a stop, their passengers leaping off and aiming their weapons at the helicopter in what appeared to be a well-practised drill, while the others took off across country. The Apache banked away to begin its attack run.

It was a well practiced drill that ended up with a lot more dead Taliban. 12 more Taliban were killed in that engagement.

As for that Taliban commander? Well, he was a member of the Taliban foreign ministry, back when the Taliban were running Afghanistan and providing aid and shelter to al Qaeda.

The Sadr insurgents may be going freelance to try and avoid being targeted by coalition and Iraqi forces, but they're going to be targeted nonetheless. Sadr is missing in action, and remaining in hiding is about the only thing keeping him alive these days.

And the Iraqis have claimed one of their most-wanted terrorists as well, and he's got links to Iran. Hot Air has background and links galore.