AFGHANISTAN'S opium cultivation and production declined steeply in 2008 from record highs, the US said today.

“We are very pleased to announce today the US Government estimate of poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan showed substantial declines,” US President George W. Bush's anti-drug czar John Walters said.

Poppy cultivation in the insurgency-wracked nation declined by 22 per cent to 157,000ha from 202,000ha in 2007, he said. When compared to 2006, the new cultivation level marked a 10 per cent drop.

After two straight years of record opium production, Mr Walters said the estimated potential production in 2008 also plunged 31 per cent to 5500 tonnes from 8000 tonnes last year.

The number of poppy-free provinces also rose from 15 to 18 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, said Mr Walters, the director of national drug control policy.

Afghanistan produces around 90 per cent of the world's opium, used to make heroin sold in Europe and Central Asia, with profits said to feed a Taliban-led insurgency that has worsened recently.

Without referring to past differences with NATO, he indicated that the counternarcotics strategy was becoming more effective due to an international recognition that fighting drugs was critical to restoring security in Afghanistan.

NATO, leading the international fight against the Taliban, has held back in the past from taking a direct role in action to eradicate poppy fields for fear of antagonising farmers who derive their income from the crop.

But at talks in the Hungarian capital Budapest earlier this month, NATO defence ministers decided to let individual nations – on a voluntary basis – hunt down drug lords and laboratories with the consent of Kabul.

The NATO decision to directly target the opium trade could help in efforts to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money from reaching the Taliban, ousted from power seven years ago by a US-led coalition, experts said.

“One of the problems we've had in the past is a recognition that both terror and violence and opium are cancers on the future of Afghanistan and have to be eradicated,” Mr Walters said.

“Although not always openly discussed, there was a view that the work on one is to undermine the other – that is to attack counternarcotics or the opium trade makes places less secure and that to make places secure, you have to look the other way on the opium trade.”

Washington, he said, had prodded the international community to “remove restrictions that in some cases have in the past prevented us working together in security and counternarcotics”.

“In short, we can't have security in Afghanistan without attacking the opium trade, we can't without also attacking corruption.

“Those three things have sometimes been elusive and they are now being more aggressively attacked by the Afghan government, the people of Afghanistan (with) the international community's help,” he said.

Ashraf Haidari, a senior Afghan embassy official, said that Kabul, with international help, was determined to eradicate the drug problem in the country's southwest, which now produced more than 90 per cent of all narcotics in Afhghanistan.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report on its annual poppy survey in August that there was a 19 per cent decrease in opium cultivation to 157,000ha, down from a record harvest of 193,000ha in 2007.

It described it as the first drop in cultivation since 2005.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24549842-12377,00.html

http://www.military.com/news/article/marine-corps-news/marine-makes-insurgents-pay-the-price.html

November 18, 2008

FARAH PROVINCE, Afghanistan — In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.

Shewan has historically been a safe haven for insurgents, who used to plan and stage attacks against Coalition Forces in the Bala Baluk district.

The city is home to several major insurgent leaders. Reports indicate that more than 250 full time fighters reside in the city and in the surrounding villages.

Shewan had been a thorn in the side of Task Force 2d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Afghanistan throughout the Marines’ deployment here in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, because it controls an important supply route into the Bala Baluk district. Opening the route was key to continuing combat operations in the area.

“The day started out with a 10-kilometer patrol with elements mounted and dismounted, so by the time we got to Shewan, we were pretty beat,” said a designated marksman who requested to remain unidentified. “Our vehicles came under a barrage of enemy RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and machine gun fire. One of our ‘humvees’ was disabled from RPG fire, and the Marines inside dismounted and laid down suppression fire so they could evacuate a Marine who was knocked unconscious from the blast.”

The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense eight-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the kill zone, another platoon sergeant personally led numerous attacks on enemy fortified positions while the platoon fought house to house and trench to trench in order to clear through the enemy ambush site.

“The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”

During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.

“I was in my own little world,” the young corporal said. “I wasn’t even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target.”

After calling for close-air support, the small group of Marines pushed forward and broke the enemies’ spirit as many of them dropped their weapons and fled the battlefield. At the end of the battle, the Marines had reduced an enemy stronghold, killed more than 50 insurgents and wounded several more.

“I didn’t realize how many bad guys there were until we had broken through the enemies’ lines and forced them to retreat. It was roughly 250 insurgents against 30 of us,” the corporal said. “It was a good day for the Marine Corps. We killed a lot of bad guys, and none of our guys were seriously injured.”

WWWWHHHOOOOOAAAGGGHHHHH !!!!!

What a result.

muslim extremists humiliated in their own land by outnumbered indidel/kaffars.

how good does it get ?

Air support.

easel wrote on Nov 25^th, 2008 at 6:41pm:

Air support.

"Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force"