ISAF’s morning snapshot of the Afghanistan war

Officials in Kabul provided an interesting moment-in-time glimpse of the Afghanistan war today with concurrent press releases from the International Security Assistance Force.   ISAF first boasted in a news release to reporters that three kandaks, or Afghan brigades, had completed “clearing operations” in Helmand province for one week in November.   The accomplishment: the ...

Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

Officials in Kabul provided an interesting moment-in-time glimpse of the Afghanistan war today with concurrent press releases from the International Security Assistance Force.
 
ISAF first boasted in a news release to reporters that three kandaks, or Afghan brigades, had completed “clearing operations” in Helmand province for one week in November.
 
The accomplishment: the Afghan National Army was able to sustain them logistically all by themselves. Even when the Afghans took casualties, they did not request evacuation assistance from ISAF.
 
“The clearing operation highlights the 215th Corps’ ability to deploy kandaks as part of an operation and sustain them logistically for a week,” the ISAF statement said.
 
Three brigades, inside their own country, for one week.
 
Minutes later, ISAF released a statement condemning yet another insurgent bombing the command said killed and injured “several” Afghan civilians, this time in Uruzgan province.
 
Brig. Gen. Günter Katz, an ISAF spokesman, lamented that “the insurgency has continued its murderous assault on Afghan civilians.”
 

Officials in Kabul provided an interesting moment-in-time glimpse of the Afghanistan war today with concurrent press releases from the International Security Assistance Force.
 
ISAF first boasted in a news release to reporters that three kandaks, or Afghan brigades, had completed “clearing operations” in Helmand province for one week in November.
 
The accomplishment: the Afghan National Army was able to sustain them logistically all by themselves. Even when the Afghans took casualties, they did not request evacuation assistance from ISAF.
 
“The clearing operation highlights the 215th Corps’ ability to deploy kandaks as part of an operation and sustain them logistically for a week,” the ISAF statement said.
 
Three brigades, inside their own country, for one week.
 
Minutes later, ISAF released a statement condemning yet another insurgent bombing the command said killed and injured “several” Afghan civilians, this time in Uruzgan province.
 
Brig. Gen. Günter Katz, an ISAF spokesman, lamented that “the insurgency has continued its murderous assault on Afghan civilians.”
 

Kevin Baron is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy, covering defense and military issues in Washington. He is also vice president of the Pentagon Press Association. Baron previously was a national security staff writer for National Journal, covering the "business of war." Prior to that, Baron worked in the resident daily Pentagon press corps as a reporter/photographer for Stars and Stripes. For three years with Stripes, Baron covered the building and traveled overseas extensively with the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, covering official visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, in more than a dozen countries. From 2004 to 2009, Baron was the Boston Globe Washington bureau's investigative projects reporter, covering defense, international affairs, lobbying and other issues. Before that, he muckraked at the Center for Public Integrity. Baron has reported on assignment from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific. He was won two Polk Awards, among other honors. He has a B.A. in international studies from the University of Richmond and M.A. in media and public affairs from George Washington University. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Baron has lived in the Washington area since 1998 and currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, three sons, and the family dog, The Edge. Twitter: @FPBaron

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