Unrest In The Middle East Intensifying Ahead Of Troop Withdrawals
In what has become one among many in the turbulent middle east, a Taliban bomb hit a NATO convoy just north Kabul and killed two U.S. soldiers on Friday. Two other bombings in the area took the lives of nineteen others between Friday and Saturday.
Thirteen years after the 9/11 attacks, the international military efforts in the middle east are supposed to be concluding at then end of this year. NATO and the U.S. will cut total troop numbers down to 13,000, about ten per cent of troop counts at their peak. The numbers of soldiers stationed in the middle east will continue to scale back over the next two years. The remaining troops are to support the in-country security forces with continued training and potential combat support. Afghanistan’s president Ashraf Ghani has been making the case for continued military and financial support.
“We are not yet able to do everything alone. Your continued support will, therefore, be key in ensuring that our collective gains of the 13 years will be enduring.”
The Taliban violence has been increasing ahead of the the withdrawals. Deaths in the middle east are at the highest point since the war began. Afghan security force deaths are up 6.5 per cent, with 65 deaths overall this year alone, 50 of them Americans. In addition to the suicide attack on the convoy near Bagram Airforce Base, gunmen on motorcycles killed workers deactivating land mines near Camp Bastion, and more gunmen shot and killed a Supreme Court official as he left his house in the heavily fortified city of Kabul. For its part, the Afghan security forces claim to have killed upwards of 50 insurgents over the same time period as the recent attacks were taking place.
Afghanistan isn’t the only trouble spot in the middle east. Some fear Afghanistan will be a rerun of the drama playing out in Iraq. Three years after troop withdrawal from Iraq, the Islamic State is making leaps and bounds in capturing portions of the country and is trying desperately to establish a caliphate. The middle eastern terror group known as the Islamic State has been shooting down military helicopters in the past few months. It took down two near Baiji, home to a lucrative oil refinery that they would later seize.
This weekend conflicting reports are emerging indicating that IS may have shot down one, if not two more near Samarra. They also have two very strategic cities under siege. Militants in several other middle eastern countries have expressed interests in the gains made by the terror group in Iraq. Although an alliance is unlikely, the factions share similar ideologies and have some connections. They may inadvertently strengthen or assist each other by taking on common enemies. U.S. and NATO forces have not had much luck in regaining assets lost to middle eastern militant factions. As reported by the Inquisitr, support for middle eastern militant factions is spreading like wildfire beyond the middle east into Europe, the support is known as the Salafist Movement. Supporters are exporting violent jihad and Sharia Law from the middle east and sending brides to the jihadists.
