NATO Airstrike Kills Two Taliban Commanders North of Kabul

Yessssssssssss! A NATO (this means USAF) airstrike in the Now Zad district north of Kabul has killed to prominent Taliban commanders....may allah be the first to tell them he's a lie. But this really is a good sign that a current operation to flush the area is making some inroads. As you can see from the map pictured, the red areas are controlled by the Taliban and the beige areas are contested - Now Zad is contolled by the Taliban at the northern end of Helmand province but is a bit more of an island - a good chunk to focus on. This report and great maps comes to us from The Long War Journal here. Some excerpts:

Two Taliban commanders were killed in a Coalition airstrike in southern Afghanistan on March 16, while in central Afghanistan, Afghan and Coalition forces are conducting a major operation to dislodge the Taliban from a valley north of of Kabul.
Taliban commander Jamaluddin Hanif and a "prominent facilitor" named Maulawi Mohammed Saddiq were killed during a March 16 airstrike in the Now Zad district of Helmand province.
Hanafi was "an integral member of the insurgency in Now Zad, and was heavily involved in several Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks, ambushes and the planning and execution of conventional attacks," according to a NATO press release. He was appointed as a Taliban leader by Mullah Abdul Rahim in early 2008. Rahim is currently in Pakistani custody while his brother was killed in a July 2008 airstrike that killed former Now Zad Taliban leader Mullah Bismullah Akhund.
After Rahim was detained, Hanafi took orders from senior Taliban leaders Abdul Qayoum Zakir and Mullah Naim Barich, "who direct insurgent activity from outside Afghanistan," the NATO press release stated.
The Taliban leadership for southern Afghanistan, including overall Taliban leader Mullah Omar, is known to be based out of Quetta in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. The US is considering expanding its airstrike campaign from Pakistan's tribal areas into Baluchistan, according to a report in The New York Times.
Also killed in the March 16 strike was Maulawi Mohammad Saddiq, a Taliban facilitator who moved weapons and improvised explosive devices and was "one of the main authors of the Taliban regulations for Helmand province."
Saddiq was close to Maulawi Sayed Rahman, a commander in central Helmand province. He also took orders from leaders Barich and Akhtar Mohammed Mansour who operate outside of Afghanistan.
Now Zad is a known haven for Taliban fighters and leaders...

You know, we see the success of these air strikes and really have to wonder why we don't see more of them - well, the fact of the matter is that it didn't help to have a Presidential candidate here in the U.S. spouting off during the campaign that Americans in Afghanistan were bombing village and killing civilians - some of you dipshits elected that traitorous speaking candidate President. So, we have to always deal with these false claims and innuendo in Afghanistan about civilian casualties - well, if Afghan villagers aid and abet the Taliban, then they deserve the consequences and as in all war, there is going to be death. Every single day we hear how big a challenge the War in Afghanistan is...and I don't question that, but in the end, if you turn our air force loose, if you take the chains off of our Apache teams we will see these areas of red turned into blue (well, they still might be red but it will be from Taliban blood and guts).

Airstrike kills Taliban commanders in southern Afghanistan

Now Zad is a known haven for Taliban fighters and leaders. The districts near the borders of Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces in southern Afghanistan are considered under Taliban control or contested. The Taliban has conducted infantry-styled assaults and built fortifications in the region, and have conducted complex ambushes, according to an after action report from a US Marine officer that was obtained by The Long War Journal.
The US Marines have established a combat outpost in Now Zad in an effort to drive out the Taliban. Now Zad has been the focus of two other major airstrikes since late February. On Feb. 22, An Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber attacked "n anti-Afghan bunker" after Taliban forces attacked US forces. On March 4, US Marine Corps F/A-18C fighter-bombers strafed a Taliban compound that attacked US forces with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and machineguns.
Offensive underway in Kapisa
In Kapisa province north of Kabul, Afghan and Coalition forces have launched a major offensive to clear the Taliban from the Alasai valley.
The operation, which was launched on March 14 and is still ongoing, has resulted in 29 Taliban fighters killed and 12 wounded, according to an International Security Assistance Forces press release. One Coalition soldier has been killed in the fighting. A battalion of French troops currently is deployed in Kapisa.
Kapisa province has served as an stronghold for the Taliban and allied insurgent groups and criminal networks for the past several years. Taliban suicide-bomb cells, Hezb-i-Islami fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and a host of anti-government tribal militias. The districts of Nejrab and Tag Ab are the least secure of Kapisa’s six districts.
Coalition forces killed five senior Taliban and insurgent leaders in Kapisa during a series of raids in early September 2008. Two of those killed were involved last year's deadly ambush of a joint French and Afghan force in the Sarobi district in the eastern region of Kabul province that resulted in ten French soldiers killed and 21 more wounded.
The Taliban, al Qaeda, the Haqqani Network, Hezb-i-Islami-Gulbuddin, the Pakistani Taliban, and a host of allied groups have made gains in central Afghanistan over the past several years in their strategy to choke Kabul. The Taliban have taken control of large regions in Kapisa as well as Logar and Wardak provinces south of Kabul, and hopes to gain more ground in their latest "spring offensive."