{"id":37999,"date":"2014-01-21T12:41:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T12:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=d8e96ac92b7066420c52e3ac38f1a8e0"},"modified":"2014-01-21T12:41:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T12:41:00","slug":"news-story-afghan-army-warriors-take-the-fight-to-the-taliban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=37999","title":{"rendered":"News story: Afghan army warriors take the fight to the Taliban"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>British-mentored Afghan soldiers seized and destroyed 1,200 kilograms of illegal fertiliser, used for making explosives, in a successful operation in Helmand province.<\/p>\n<p>The operation was just the latest of many that the Afghan National Army (<abbr title=\"Afghan National Army\">ANA<\/abbr>) have been conducting on the edge of the Helmand River Valley, as they continue to drive the insurgents and the battle against them away from populated areas.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Major Andy Mclannahan assists the Afghan command element\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/21157\/AMOC-CCT-2014-001-174.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>Major Andy Mclannahan (right), officer commanding the kandak liaison team, assists the Afghan command element during the operation [Picture: Sergeant Dan Bardsley, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>During the clearance operation in the area between Camp Bastion and Lashkar Gah, the British Army\u2019s kandak liaison team, made up of soldiers from <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.army.mod.uk\/infantry\/regiments\/25990.aspx\">3rd Battalion The Mercian Regiment<\/a> and a number of attached <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.army.mod.uk\/territorial\/31781.aspx\">reservists<\/a> from <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.army.mod.uk\/infantry\/regiments\/26607.aspx\">6th Battalion The Rifles<\/a>, deployed alongside the <abbr title=\"Afghan National Army\">ANA<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>There was minimal call for support as the <abbr title=\"Afghan National Army\">ANA<\/abbr> took advantage of the British and international training they had received to lead the operation from start to finish.<\/p>\n<p>Major Andy Mclannahan, officer commanding the kandak liaison team, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>This operation really blew away some myths about the Afghan army. Their soldiers completely overwhelmed the insurgents in an area the Taliban consider to be key to their network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">They did so without any real support from the International Security Assistance Force and without sustaining any casualties. It was a great success and another blow to the insurgency.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Afghan soldiers control the operation via radio\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/21158\/AMOC-CCT-2014-001-207.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>Afghan soldiers control the operation via radio [Picture: Sergeant Dan Bardsley, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lance Corporal Liam Neale described the change in the Afghan army:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The Afghan army warriors are a hundred times better than last time we were here,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are conducting their own operations and they are keeping the Taliban away from the community.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Private Keith Ponter added:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">We have one of the best jobs left in theatre; we go out on operations with the <abbr title=\"Afghan National Army\">ANA<\/abbr> and get to see that what we do makes a difference in the long-term, first-hand.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Afghan and British military convoy\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/21159\/AMOC-CCT-2014-001-054.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>Afghan and British military convoy [Picture: Sergeant Dan Bardsley, Crown copyright]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over a tonne of illegal fertiliser, used by bomb-makers, has been seized by the Afghan army in Helmand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}