Afstan: Now for something else rather different...

...from the tone of much recent reporting. Further to Damian's post about the Canadians, Royal Marines and Afghans, a story in the Daily Telegraph:

Scores die as Taliban suffer heaviest defeat for months
Taliban fighters suffered one of their heaviest defeats on Sunday when scores were killed in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand.

Apache helicopers, flown by Britain's Army Air Corps, and local security forces inflicted the losses when the Taliban attacked the local capital, Lashkar Gah. This was the first time in months that the insurgents had tried launching a frontal assault on a fixed position.

These highly risky tactics expose them to the superior firepower of their opponents and had been largely abandoned in favour of hit-and-run strikes and attacks on civilian targets.

But Taliban fighters were seen gathering west of Lashkar Gah on Saturday night, apparently preparing to fire mortar bombs at the town. Soldiers from the Afghan National Army intercepted the insurgents on the town's outskirts and called in air strikes from British Army Apaches. British troops are not believed to have taken a direct part in the ground fighting.

There were conflicting reports of casualties, with Afghan officials claiming that 130 Taliban fighters had been killed. A British spokesman put the figure nearer to 50 and said there were no reports of prisoners being taken.

By yesterday morning, the Taliban had been forced to retreat from Lashkar Gah. Operations to pursue them were continuing. "If the insurgents planned a spectacular attack prior to the winter, this was a spectacular failure," said General Richard Blanchett, from Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

There had been a lull in fighting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but Nato commanders expect an upsurge in violence before Winter ends the traditional campaigning season.

Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade are currently on duty in Helmand and Camp Bastion, the main British base, is around 15 miles from Lashkar Gah.

Lt-Col Woody Page, a Royal Marine spokesman, said: "This was a deliberate and planned operation that continues, conducted by ISAF and Afghan forces to defeat terrorist activities in the region of Lashkar Gah. We will remain fully committed to supporting the government and people of Afghanistan in their aim to defeat these terrorists."

More:

Top general: NATO not losing Afghan war

The top NATO general in Afghanistan on Sunday rejected the idea that NATO is losing the Afghanistan war to an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.

But U.S. Gen. David McKiernan also said he needs more military forces to tamp down the militants, and he depicted a chaotic Afghan countryside where insurgents hold more power than the Afghan government seven years after the U.S.-led invasion. He said better governance and economic progress were vital.

"It is true that in many places of this country we don't have an acceptable level of security. We don't have good governance. We don't have socio-economic progress. We don't have people that are able to grow their produce and get it to market. We don't have freedom of movement," he told a news conference in Kabul.

"We don't have progress as evenly or as fast as many of us would like, but we are not losing Afghanistan," he said...

...McKiernan said that NATO forces should do more to engage "traditional tribal authorities" to improve security and governance, but he said NATO would not bring back armed militias.

McKiernan's proposal could be a way to empower local leaders. The government of President Hamid Karzai is largely seen as ineffective outside Kabul and the capital cities of the country's 34 provinces.

Echoing calls that other U.S. and NATO leaders have made for months, McKiernan said he needs more military forces but also more helicopters, transport planes and civil affairs teams. He said country mandated restrictions that keep some NATO members out of the fight in Afghanistan are harmful to the mission. German and Italian forces are heavily restricted.

There are about 65,000 international troops in Afghanistan, including some 32,000 U.S. forces, all record numbers. McKiernan has requested another three to four brigades of American forces — between 10,000 and 15,000 troops — and it appears likely those forces will arrive sometime next year.

McKiernan said there is a connection between lowering the number of U.S. forces in Iraq and the Pentagon's ability to redirect troops to Afghanistan. McKiernan and his predecessor have long said that the NATO mission is short on troops.

The forces McKiernan said he would most like to see are Afghan soldiers and police, but until a "tipping point" is reached where Afghan forces have the numbers and skill to secure their own country, the international community needs to dedicate troops here, he said.

Asked about reports of recent peace overtures between the Afghan government and Taliban officials in Saudi Arabia, McKiernan said the NATO-led mission will support any initiative that will improve security, but that peace talks are an issue for the Afghan government alone [emphasis added--at least publicly, I'd say - MC].