4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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I say the fighting quality of the Taliban is seriously lacking.

These Taliban terrorists basically go to villages and round up men and send them to fight trained and highly organized troops from NATO.

Its sad and pathetic whats happening. Every day 100+ Taliban are being killed but what is not being reported that they were just recruited a month before and send to fight NATO because the real Taliban fled with their tails behind their backs when the USA attacked Afghanistan.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006450334,,00.html

By VIRGINIA WHEELER
SEPTEMBER 29, 2006

FOUR Royal Marine commandos fought off an ambush by 200 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, it emerged yesterday.

The group — who had only been in the war-torn country five days — held off the rebels for four hours on Wednesday until reinforcements arrived.

The heroes were helped by soldiers from the Afghan National Army in what marines have dubbed “Afghanistan’s Rorke’s Drift”.

During the battle, Pakistani mercenaries in the pay of Taliban warlords rained heavy gunfire and grenades from all directions.

The clash took place at an outstation known as Garmazia in the lawless Helmand region 30 miles from the Pakistan border.

The besieged commandos radioed for support with the message: “We are surrounded.”

At one point they looked death in the face as they were encircled by the advancing mob firing heavy machine guns.

They were only saved when an Apache helicopter arrived to hammer the insurgents.

The platoon house was too far from the main British base for a rescue party to be sent by land.

The marines, from 42 Commando, escaped with only minor injuries and two Afghan National Army soldiers were wounded.

A Royal Marines source said: “This was an amazing show of true British grit and heroism and a triumph against all the odds. Our marines showed why they are the best in the world.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “These men are incredible professionals — the best we have.”

Twenty-four British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since August.

Meanwhile NATO yesterday agreed to take command of peacekeeping across all of Afghanistan next month after the US pledged an extra 12,000 troops to its force.

America will provide 14,000 of the 32,000 NATO troops who will be under British command.

It will be the biggest deployment of US troops under foreign command since World War II.

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

Mod, I am sure you are aware of the jokes forum please move it there.

thxs

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

Pakistani mercenaries were also involved? And lol its nice to see that the British marines get the credit while they were also in the company of the Afghan army...and with an apache fighter killing off the taliban with ease. And were the taliban fighting with stones or something?

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

About 150 years ago; 22 Sikhs held off close to 10000-12000 Afridi and Orazaki tribesmen for about a week. Killing several hundred of them before being killed themselves.

The Battle at Saragarhi is one of eight stories of collective bravery published by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). It has been mentioned as one of the five most significant events of its kind in the world which includes the Saga of Thermoplyae associated with the heroic stand of a small Greek force against the mighty Persian Army of Xerxes in 480 B.C.

http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php?title=Battle_of_Saragarhi

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

As Afridi said, fighting off such an attack is unsurprising when you consider that

a) They were elite soldiers, contrasted to the Taliban who have virtually no formal fireamrs training.
b) There weren't just 4 people fighting, there were Afghan Army involved as well
c) You have a Helicopter Gunship on your side

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

yet again it goes to prove that all baravado and no strategy and no plan will always get you pimp slapped. The taleban talked a big talk and then ran away in burqaas when the time came to take a stand, what were the words, we have never been beaten, we will fight to the end etc etc.

I hope that this event serves as an example to those who are being recruited by the taleban head honchos, to stop and see that they are just being used as battle fodder. Maybe the next group of potential recruots would have more sense and walk away.

and if they dont, well then let them go and attack and be eliminated sooner rather than later.

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

No doubt the Taliban are more aggressive this year than in previous years. What the Taliban seem to be forgetting is that screaming Allihu Ahkbar! and running up a hill at professional soldiers did not work against the Soviets, and it will not work aganst anyone else. Without the CIA providing Stinger missles, the Taleban are Target Practice for both skilled soldiers and Apache pilots. There will be thousands less this winter recruiting season. When the head of the NATO forces asked for more troops, what he should have said is, "These idiots are slaughtering themselves and we have the opportunity to kill a lot of them, send more troops."

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

Rules of warfare: Ratio of Attackers to Defenders
1: Normal bunker: 3:1
2: Hilly Bunker: 5:1
3: Mountainous Bunker:8:1
4: Mountainous bunker with elite troops, heavy weapons, gunships: 50:1

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

Taliban can score defensive victories in the rugged terrain but offensive victories will be very few and very far between and only against a small number of troops.

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

I think this one should be a classic script for Hollywood...

Superman liberates Afghanistan

P.S: Dead Russkies must be turning in their graves..

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

^ Well the Taliban have been successful at going to schools and murdering teachers, such brave warriors, they are applying the lessons on the 80's so well, attack school teachers and children!

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

[quote=Ohioguy]
No doubt the Taliban are more aggressive this year than in previous years. What the Taliban seem to be forgetting is that screaming Allihu Ahkbar! and running up a hill at professional soldiers did not work against the Soviets.../quote]

According to Canadian and other Nato forces, the Pashtoon fighters (it ain't the Taliban anymore folks...) employ hit and run tactics from a distance. War of attrition, not human-wave attacks....

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

^ To what end, drive any investment out of Afghanistan?

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

What are your NA commies good at? pushing drugs and raping women!

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

Yeah yeah...superhuman limeys...all BS...Apaches...Air Support laser tagging et al, height, bunker, flack armor, higher rate of fire, night vision etc..etc....Heck you can put Altaf bhai in this scenario and he'd be able to beat back a full corp of Pak Army Rangers with his left pinky, while addressing his jialays gathered in Azizabad to celeberate his khatna, at the same time chomping on some bihari kabobs with his right hand and three fingers and the thumb on his left...

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

[quote=picoico]

Wrong.

More Troops Urged For Afghanistan
**CASTEAU, Belgium, Sept. 7, 2006 ****(AP) **NATO’s top commander, Gen. James L. Jones, on Thursday called for allied nations to send reinforcements to southern Afghanistan, saying the coming weeks could be decisive in the fight against the Taliban.

Jones will meet top generals from the 26 NATO nations Friday and Saturday in Warsaw, Poland, in an attempt to generate hundreds of troops, with planes and helicopters needed for the mission.

“We have to give the commander additional insurance in terms of some forces that can be there, perhaps temporarily, to make sure that we can carry the moment,” he said.

Jones acknowledged that NATO had been surprised by the “level of intensity” of Taliban attacks since the alliance moved into the southern region in July and by the fact the insurgents were prepared to stand and fight rather than deploy their usual hit-and-run tactics.

On Thursday, Taliban militants took over a police station in the remote southern town of Garmser in Helmand province after officers fled for a second time in two months, police said. Taliban forces briefly held the town for two days in July before coalition troops retook it.

Jones said, however, that he was confident that NATO troops could win the war.

“In the relatively near future, certainly before the winter, we will see this decisive moment in the region turn in favor of the troops that represent the government,” Jones said at NATO’s military headquarters in southern Belgium.

He told reporters he was confident the meeting in Warsaw would muster helicopters, transport planes and several hundred “flexible” reserve troops able to move quickly around the region in support of the operation against the Taliban.

“It will help us to reduce casualties and bring this to a successful conclusion in a short period of time,” he said. “This is not a desperate move, it is more of an insurance package.”

Jones said he wanted to “destroy” Taliban fighters now confronting the NATO mission before they head back into the mountains with the onset of winter within the next few weeks.

Although Jones said he was confident allies would respond to his appeal at the Warsaw meeting, he did acknowledge that nations have been reluctant to commit troops to the NATO force, which has sustained increasing casualties in the last weeks.

NATO’s Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer backed Jones’ call for allies to strengthen the NATO force, which currently has about 20,000 troops.

“All allies should think how they can help,” de Hoop Scheffer told reporters in Brussels.

Jones criticized the international community for not matching the military effort in Afghanistan with more economic help, assistance building up the police and judicial services and, in particular, help Afghan authorities tackle the country’s burgeoning narcotics problem.

“The future of Afghanistan will not be determined by the military,” he said.

He complained that aid programs to Afghanistan were “in some stage of life support” and insisted civilian aid was vital to stabilize the country and enable an exit strategy for the international military force.

Since January, 21 NATO troops have died and there have been an equal number of accidental deaths, Jones said. The casualty rate has shot up since NATO forces took control of southern Afghanistan in August, replacing a much smaller U.S. military operation in the region and placing large numbers of international troops in the Taliban’s heartland.

“It’s something akin to poking a bee hive and the bees are now swarming,” Jones said. “The violence that is ensuing is a contest that’s going to decide in which way that region is going to go.”

Jones said Taliban casualties “far outweigh” those suffered by NATO and he questioned whether the insurgents would be able to maintain their attacks.

**“I do not think that … they have an unlimited amount of people,” he said. “They are not going to take casualties at this rate for a long period of time.” **

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/08/terror/main1984979.shtml

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

Yeah, the Sun always prints balanced stories.

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

Taliban doesn't seem to mind the drug money that's flowing to them these days.

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

UTD I dont get one thing, its warlords that are aligned with karzai and NATO forces are the ones who have the drug production, how is the money going to Taleban unless they are in cahoots somehow. It just confuses me

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Re: 4 British Marines hold off 200 Taliban Fighters

WoW! that was funny. Someone quoted from the SUN and you all fell for it. You could only be Yanks or Canucks. :halo: