Word: arghandab
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Dates: during 2008-2008
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...were followed by 30 motorcyle-riding militants, who systematically broke down every cell door in the jail. The audacious raid freed an estimated 400 Taliban fighters, and many of them appear to have gone right to work. Within three days, hundreds of insurgents swarmed through the key district of Arghandab - and escaped prisoners were among them, says district chief Ghulam Farouq. As the Taliban gained a footing in the villages, NATO and Afghan army troops launched a counter operation aimed at stopping the insurgents before they could mass for a major assault of their...
...battle is being joined in a storied and auspicious place. Arghandab, just 10 miles northwest of Kandahar, is famous for its lush vineyards and pomegranate orchards. It is also a key symbol for the insurgency. Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979, but were never fully able to conquer the Arghandab district, which remained an outpost of mujahedin defiance. Its shady groves, raisin-drying barns and deep irrigation canals provide excellent cover for fighters. Kandahar residents worry that the militants could use the Arghandab district as a base for an attack on the city itself, in an attempt to regain their...
...massing of Taliban fighters in Arghandab is a departure from the militant tactics that have evolved over the past two years. In 2006 NATO forces soundly defeated a Taliban force in nearby Panjwayi, and declared the movement all but dead. Since then there has been an increase in suicide bombings and the use of Improvised Explosive Devices. That approach was interpreted as one of weakness and desperation, but now it is starting to look like a recuperation strategy. The jailbreak and ensuing raid indicates the growing strength of the Taliban, whose fundamentalist Islamic regime was pushed from power when...