Talibans growing use of marksmen worries U.S. officers

Posted on Friday, January 2, 2009

Taliban's growing use of marksmen worries U.S. officers

By Nancy A. Youssef
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters increasingly are deploying precision marksmen to fire on U.S. troops at greater distances throughout opium-producing southern Afghanistan, according to the top two commanders for the southern region.

The increased use of marksmen is the latest Taliban shift to asymmetrical warfare and away from confronting U.S. troops in conventional fights, the commanders told McClatchy.

Instead of gathering in company-sized units to take on foreign troops, Taliban forces also are resorting increasingly to explosives and bombings, attacks that require fewer people and pose less risk to themselves, the commanders said. Explosives attacks rose by 33 percent last year, as did deaths of coalition troops, according to the International Security Assistance Force, which leads the coalition forces stationed here.
More on the link
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/58896.html

 

No supporting evidence provided though, just 'intuition':

 

The increased use of marksmen is hardly a shift towards assymetrical warfare.

 

Yes but it makes sense from the Taliban's point of view. The more they can inflict on us in the way of casualties and cost the more reluctant public opinion will be in the west to continue with it. I think they will only wish to take us on head to head in large pitched battles in very special situations.

 

But IEDs are much more effective than snipers as an alternative to sect/pl strength direct fire engagements. And anyway, long range shots are hardly new. It's not really much of a news story IMO.

 

The use of very accurate fire, probably from SVDs, was one of the reasons why the french paratroopers lost many KIAs in the first minutes of the Uzbeen ambush last August.

 

It's hardly surprising is it? Large Taliban formations destroyed by Air Power? Solution switch to 'snipers'.
There is no real need to kill whole sections or engage in set piece battles, which the Taliban wouldn't win anyway, simply pick away in the hope that Coalition troops will get demoralised and that the continual losses would cause more calls in the West for Troops to be withdrawn soonest.

 

This is new to them ? They should go to FMSO, that invaluable US military agency and draw out copies of "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" and "The Other Side of The Mountain" and read the flaming things. (*) The Muj (Terry's granddad) were noted for using .303 to take out Russians at long range, it defeated the Soviet body armour where AK fire did not.

(*) And for any serving soldiers in the UK, so should you. They hand this stuff out free to allies, all you have to do is ask.

 

Hell... go back further... your own infantry took severe losses to jezail wielding locals back a couple centurys ago. Long range marksmanship was something the folks there were known for until they captured lots of automatic weapons from the Russians. No surprise that it has returned...

 

So, iraq is now no longer a game/trainng area for the ragheads of mulicultinations.

after training in iraq they now move to afgoonistan and with the aid of IRAN now lay IED's with the "IRANIAN" copper target system to kill more isaf cannon fodder.

USA and GB make no moves to destroy the supply of such IRANIAN IED's ?

USA and GB make no move to destroy the supply of suicide bomberrs from pakistan ?

of course they are trying to stop the threats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so instead of ponsing about the green zone the military execute the ied/bomb people crossing the border from iran/pakifuckingstan.

That would require Iran and pkistan to stop supporting the ragheads.

so lets nuke iran and pakistan and then go home????

 

If it's single blokes engaging conventional manoeuvre force elements in a way which negates the advantage of numbers, it's close to a working definition of asymmetric. It isn't a shift towards asymmetrical warfare, merely a continuation of it.

That’ll be a, ‘ten rupee’, jezail then…

I know you've just bitten in a big way on the 'Gladiators' thread, so not wishing to take the piss, but I'm struggling here to work out which bits of that post are sarcasm and which bits you really mean.

 

Why are US officers worried when the only quote comes from a Cloggie?

 

Trust me when I say that from current and ongoing experience, there's a definite and pervasive sense here that the whole of The Coalition of The Willing is US, it's just that some of the TCNs wear 'funny' uniforms...