Flytrapping the Taliban in Afghanistan
The 173rd Airborne Brigade is using classi flytrapping techniques to engage and defeat Taliban units. Small numbers of American’s - sometimes with Afghan national Army troops tagging along -move into Taliban-held territory in an attempt to lure Taliban fighters out in the open. When the tactic works, the result is deadly - especially for the Taliban. The Christian Science Monitor’s fourth installment in a series of article about our war against the Taliban describes two of the battles, both of which cost the Taliban dearly:
…reinforcements from the 1st and 3rd platoons have arrived. All escape routes are blocked. The Taliban are trapped.
“The fire was extremely close,” says O’Neal, who was with a second team providing covering fire lower down the hill. “But toward the end it got dark, so we just ran to the bottom.”
As night falls, American AC-130 Specter gunships arrive to engage Taliban fighters who have also decided to make a run for it. By the end of the day, 76 Taliban bodies are counted, and another nine Taliban fighters are captured.
To this day, the men of the 2nd Platoon, Chosen Company, can’t figure out what the Taliban were thinking. Were they suicidal? Why did they gather so many Taliban in one place? Did they really think they had enough men to defeat the Americans?
