Major operations since 2001
Thursday, June 15, 2006 CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/14/taliban.timeline.ap/index.html
A look at some of the major coalition military operations conducted in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban:
June, 2006: More than 11,000 U.S., British, Canadian and Afghan troops deploy to southern Afghanistan to launch Operation Mountain Thrust, scheduled for June 14. The largest coalition offensive since 2001 is targeting Taliban forces in four volatile provinces.
April 15, 2006: Some 2,500 U.S. and Afghan forces launch Operation Mountain Lion in the eastern Kunar province bordering Pakistan where militants from Taliban and al Qaeda militants have long been active. Operation is ongoing.
August, 2005: Hundreds of U.S. Marines and Afghan special forces launch operation to take a remote Kunar mountain valley from militants responsible for killing three U.S. Navy SEALs and downing a special forces chopper with 16 U.S. troops on board who had gone to rescue them.
July 13, 2004: Several thousand U.S. soldiers open Operation Lightning Resolve across southern and eastern Afghanistan to safeguard October 7 presidential elections.
July 21, 2003: About 1,000 Afghan soldiers conduct their first major operation, codenamed Warrior Sweep, in a hunt for insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.
More on link
Understanding Afghanistan’s Economy - a Brief Guide for Journalists
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
Spokesperson’s Office
Kabul - Afghanistan – 8 May, 2006
http://www.unama-afg.org/news/_publications/fact%20sheets/2006/FactSheet-EconomicOutlook-May2006-eng.pdf
Data limitations present difficulties when it comes to measuring Afghanistan’s economy. The following figures are from the International Monetary Fund’s latest Country Report on Afghanistan, published in March 2006, and its April 2006 World Economic Database.
UNODC 2006 Drug Report
released 26 June 2005
http://www.unama-afg.org/docs/_UN-Docs/_planning&dev/2006-UNODC-DrugReport.pdf
The world’s supply of opium has shrunk, but in an unbalanced way. Within a few years, Asia’s notorious Golden
Triangle, once the world’s narcotics epicentre, could become opium-free. But in Afghanistan, while the area
under opium cultivation decreased in 2005, the country’s drug situation remains vulnerable to reversal. This
could happen as early as 2006.
How Iraq, Afghanistan have changed War 101
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
June 28, 2006
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0628/p02s02-usmi.html
A college for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., draws on the experience of those fighting the war on terror.
FORT LEAVENWORTH, KAN. – A few years ago, Maj. Hilton "Bo" Gardner might have sat in this cramped classroom trying to unravel the riddles of the "green sheet."
Back then, this college for mid-career Army officers had clear tactics and maneuvers in war, and the green sheet was the last word. These days, however, Major Gardner is probably the closest thing this class has to an absolute authority. As a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, he is more precious than any handout, answering fellow students' questions about the insurgency and its lessons for the Army - with the quiet consent of the teacher
Going in small in Afghanistan
By Ann Scott Tyson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
January 14, 2004 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0114/p01s04-wosc.html
A Monitor reporter joins with small teams of US troops that are trying to distance border villagers from insurgents in a key battle zone in the war on terror.
GOMAL, AFGHANISTAN – With gold turbans and eyes ringed in black, the Afghan men squat in a circle in the dust, listening intently to the first US soldiers to appear in this desolate border outpost for at least a year.
"We are not like the Russians. We won't come here and bomb everything," a soldier tells them. "I have many men and many bombs, and I can bring them all," he says, as an Apache gunship swoops overhead. "But I'm not going to. I want only to use them against the bad people."
Afghans' first stab at democracy
By Dan Morrison | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
January 06, 2004
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0106/p06s01-wosc.html
The new constitution grants more women's rights than expected, challenging Islamic beliefs of warlords.
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – A funny thing happened on the way to the new Afghan Constitution. The 502 delegates actually gave women more rights than President Hamid Karzai and his advisers had originally asked for.
Women emerged winners from the three-week constitutional loya jirga. So did President Hamid Karzai, who got the strong presidency and centralized government he had sought. Emerging as weaker were the mostly ethnic Tajik warlords of the Northern Alliance, who found themselves unable to outnumber or out-politic their opponents.
