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International Community in
Afghanistan continues....
At the end of the first week of December, Kandahar collapsed into anarchy as Afghan factions fought against each other. US Marines engaged in their first combat on the ground on 7 December in southern Afghanistan as they fought enemy forces while following information from Afghan warlords that Bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar were cornered in caves along the Pakistani border. US bombers pounded the area. Rumsfeld confessed, ‘I see, literally, dozens and dozens and dozens of pieces of intelligence every day … and they do not agree.’
As to confirmation of Bin Laden in the Tora Bora caves, Rumsfeld said ‘One cannot know with precision until the chase around the yard is over.’ Even though talk was at this point of the Taleban having been defeated, Rumsfeld again signalled caution: ‘It would be premature to suggest that once Kandahar surrenders that, therefore, we kind of relax and say “well, that takes care of that,” because it does not.’
The fall of Kandahar signalled the formal end of Taleban rule, but the fight against its members and Al-Qaeda and the search for their chief leaders remained. The story of international presence in Afghanistan after
the fall of Kandahar is one of three parts: the continuing American-led war; the implementation of an international stabilization force; and efforts to build political and social stability in this war-torn country.
The American-led fighting was no longer conducted as consistently as before, becoming several different types of operations, with a specific objective. The Pentagon invited allied forces to participate in these difficult operations.
Thus, 1,700 Royal Marines were deployed to aid the Americans. Previously, British forces were involved in missions such as securing Bagram airbase or contributing in a non-combat role to the international peacekeeping force. Likewise, Canadian troops, with a history of peacekeeping, were deployed in combat missions for the first time since the Korean War. The largest such anti-terrorist manoeuvre in Afghanistan, Operation Anaconda, ended without the capture of Osama or Mullah Omar, on 18 March, and many enemy forces were believed to have escaped to Pakistan.
To be continued...