Troops Move to Secure Southern Afghanistan Before Vote

Afghan women line up this month in Kandahar to learn how to vote in the August 20 elections. (Photo credit: CNN — AFP / Getty Images)

Aug. 12, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — Hundreds of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers have moved into southern Afghanistan to protect citizens during upcoming elections, military officials said.

Afghans will go to the polls on August 20 to vote in second presidential election since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Provincial elections also will be held that day.

About 400 Marines and 100 Afghan soldiers moved to the Now Zad district in Helmand province Wednesday morning, a U.S. military statement said. …

The area in which the operation was launched has been known to be a Taliban stronghold, and American, British and Afghan forces have been involved in fierce battles with Taliban militants there in recent weeks.

In other developments in Afghanistan, a police chief was killed Tuesday night during a gunbattle with Taliban fighters, officials said. …

The fighting lasted for hours until police forced insurgents to retreat, the spokesman said.

In addition, two journalists working for The Associated Press were wounded in a roadside blast in southern Afghanistan, the news agency reported Wednesday.

Photographer Emilio Morenatti and cameraman Andi Jatmiko were traveling with the U.S. military when a bomb hit their vehicle Tuesday, the AP said.

Afghanistan is the 11th-most dangerous country in the world for journalists, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Eighteen journalists have been killed there since 1992, including 16 since the war began in 2001.

Video

Meeting the resistance in Afghanistan (NBC Nightly News, Aug. 12, 2009) — With just one week to go before elections in Afghanistan, U.S. Marines surged into a key Taliban-held town, and met with fierce resistance from the enemy. NBC’s Richard Engel reports from Kabul. (02:50)

Slide presentation

On the front lines in Afghanistan (MSNBC) — U.S. troops are fighting to suppress the Taliban and win over the Afghan people.

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Support for Afghan War Drops, CNN Poll Finds

Aug. 6, 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new national poll indicates that support among Americans for the war in Afghanistan has hit a new low.

Forty-one percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday [Aug. 6, 2009] say they favor the war in Afghanistan — down 9 points from May, when CNN polling suggested that half of the public supported the war.

Fifty-four percent say they oppose the war in Afghanistan, up 6 points from May.

“Afghanistan is almost certainly the Obama policy that Republicans like the most,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. “Nearly two-thirds of Republicans support the war in Afghanistan. Three-quarters of Democrats oppose the war.”

A record 44 United States troops were killed in Afghanistan in July, and 11 have been killed this month. …

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted July 31 through August 3, with 1,136 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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Blasts Kill 14, Including Kids, in Afghanistan

Aug. 13, 2009

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Two separate roadside blasts in southern Afghanistan killed 14 civilians, including three children, underscoring the high price paid by ordinary civilians in the conflict with the Taliban, officials said Thursday.

Officials blamed the blasts on Taliban militants, who have made roadside bombings their primary weapons.

According to figures from the U.S.-based Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, the number of incidents from IEDs soared to 828 last month, the highest level of the war and more than twice as many as in July 2008. The majority of the victims in such attacks have been civilians.

A blast on a road in the Gereshk district of Helmand province ripped through a vehicle carrying a family on Wednesday, killing 11 people, including two women and nine men, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor. …

Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency, where thousands of additional U.S. troops were deployed this year to try and reverse the militant’s gains and create conditions for next weeks presidential elections.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago Today — August 13, 2008

On the Campaign Trail: Day 30

One year ago today, on the 30th day of my campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I completed the third leg of my 100-mile Sixth District Walking Tour, setting out on foot from Salida and proceeding south along Highway 10 to Big Lake, Elk River, Ramsey, and Anoka. ECM Capitol reporter Tim Budig chronicled the day’s events.