Getting Ready For The Battle Of Khandahar

U.S. Army soldiers take a break before examining the water supply for the village of Akbar Kheyl, Pole-Elam district, Logar province, Afghanistan, March 18, 2010. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Russell Gilchrest

Let's Go - It's Hunting Season -- Times Online

BY the yellow light of dusk, two American Black Hawk helicopters traced their silhouettes across the mountainside. “Medevac birds!” a soldier said. “Something’s happening.”

Taliban gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade had just struck a joint US-Afghan base on Route Red Dog, near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. An ammunition store blew up and an Afghan soldier was wounded by shrapnel.

The insurgents rode off on motorbikes. But as darkness fell, they attacked another outpost. From two miles away, I heard American paratroopers firing more than 1,000 rounds back. Afghan soldiers on a hill behind us opened up with heavy machinegun fire, right over our heads.

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My Comment: I expect this fight to be significantly bigger than what had happened in Marjah last month. I am also expecting casualties to be very high for both sides, with fighting to last well into the summer.