Daily Archives: August 3, 2017

"Two US service members were killed in action in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when their convoy came under attack" on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman US Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said in a statement.

Earlier Wednesday, the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission, which trains and advises Afghanistan's military and police, confirmed that the attack had resulted in casualties.

"Resolute Support can confirm a NATO convoy was attacked this afternoon in Kandahar. The attack did cause casualties," the statement said.

The high-profile attack targeting the coalition comes as President Donald Trump's administration is attempting to determine its commitment to and strategy for Afghanistan and the wider region and could be seen as an attempt to shape that debate.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis told Congress that the strategy would be decided upon by mid-July but has since said that the administration is continuing to work on it.

In the absence of an administration policy on Afghanistan Sen. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Monday he would work to produce a strategy for winning the conflict in September.

"Eight years of a 'don't lose' strategy has cost us lives and treasure in Afghanistan. Our troops deserve better," McCain said in a statement.

US and coalition casualties in Afghanistan have become rarer in recent years, falling dramatically since the Afghan government assumed responsibility for combat operations in 2014. But there has been an uptick in recent months as US forces have become more directly involved in the fight against the local ISIS affiliate.

Wednesday's bombing is the latest attack to rock southern Kandahar province, which borders Pakistan, in recent months.

At least 26 Afghan soldiers were killed and 13 more wounded last week in a Taliban attack on an army camp in the province's Khakrez district, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said.

Violence also continues elsewhere in the country.

CNN's Ehsan Popalzai contributed to this report.

See the original post:
Afghanistan: Two US soldiers killed in NATO convoy attack ...

An American helicopter hovers over a NATO convoy struck by a suicide bomb Wednesday. The Pentagon says the attack, which unfolded near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killed two U.S. service members. STR/AP hide caption

An American helicopter hovers over a NATO convoy struck by a suicide bomb Wednesday. The Pentagon says the attack, which unfolded near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killed two U.S. service members.

Two U.S. service members were killed Wednesday when a NATO convoy came under attack outside the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, according to the Pentagon. It was not immediately clear how many people were wounded in the violence, which unfolded near an American base.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying a militant carried out a suicide attack with a truck packed with explosives.

NATO's Resolute Support mission in the country confirmed an assault on its convoy but did not offer further details. "We are working to gather additional information as quickly as possible," the coalition said in a statement.

As NPR's Tom Bowman notes, the Taliban rose to prominence first in Kandahar Province in the 1990s, but in recent years, U.S. and Afghan forces have largely pushed the militant group from the area.

"The last American combat deaths in Kandahar were in 2014," Tom says, "but during the past year, the Taliban have made inroads once again in Kandahar."

The Pentagon is considering sending nearly 4,000 more troops to the country to train their Afghan counterparts, joining a U.S. contingent that currently numbers roughly 8,500.

See more here:
Ambush Hits NATO Convoy In Afghanistan, Killing 2 US Service Members - NPR

WASHINGTON With exercise Saber Guardian coming to a close in Eastern Europe and more than 30 exercises stillto take place during the remainder of 2017, NATO is continuing to build its readiness. Gen. Tod Wolters, commander of NATOs Allied Air Command,highlighted for Defense News the importance of these exercises from the air perspective of the multi-domain effort.

What you want to do is out-work them, out-exercise them, out-train them, he said on how to best NATOsadversaries, such as Russia.

Wolters likened NATO to an athlete, perched in theater in a three-point stance, ready to move forward on the drop of a dimein response to nefarious events.

To maximize get readiness, Wolters emphasized training, training and training as the best way to integrate both layered capabilities and layered domains for this level of maximum readiness. And to get the best juice for your squeeze, he said, the alliance should train with the resources available.

As an example, he said NATO has seven nations that are on the brink of bringing fifth-generation F-35 aircraft into theater. But a crew of mixed fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft makes for an operational challenge.

As the aircraft train in an integrated group, he said, the crews learn how the other types of aircraft react to different situations. They become familiar with communication systems and work out the kinks, allowing for a cohesive crew, he added, in turn increasing deterrence capabilities.

This idea also extends to the interoperability of domains. Each NATO exercise, he said, is designed to incorporate several domains and ensure that allies operate smoothly, side by side and add to a greater effect.

Each one of these exercises they improve your speed, they improve your understanding of the environment, he said. You gain a greater intellectual grasp of what the problem could be, and you certainly gain a greater degree of confidence.

For Wolters, communication is also key to readiness and efficiency. This is especially true in relation to the air domain, as pilots must be cognizant of their environment through which they fly as well as coordinate with operations in other domains.

Wolters said he sees a great willingness from NATO countries both to train and provide understanding in their air domains. And he sees investments being made in ensuring the linkage between domains is open and flowing, allowing an awareness of what other groups are accomplishing.

This greater motivation to participate in exercises and cooperate across borders comes from the recent acceleration of readiness and NATOs shift from assurance to deterrence. Wolters said this shift has driven counties to secure their airspace and not only allow but participate in NATO activities.

The Turkish Air Force maintains airspace security not only for its own aircraft, but also for the aircraft taking off from Turkish soil to participate in Operation Inherent Resolve, the multinational joint task force battling the Islamic State group.

You have to be on your toes 24/7, 365 to make sure you understand exactly what is taking place, he said. Its not easy. You have to embrace it intellectually.

But training, training, training in maintaining a razor-sharp edge is critically important, he added. And weve had great success up to this point there.

Visit link:
NATO readiness strategy: 'Out-exercise them, out-train them' - DefenseNews.com

With the Islamic State defeated in Mosul and on the ropes in Raqqa, NATO is trying to assess what its role could or should be in the post-caliphate phase of the counterterrorism fight to come. The alliance has an important role to play, but it should stick close to its traditional mission and skillset. At its core, NATO is a military alliance, not a counterterrorism (CT) agency.

The spike in international terror incidents in the West and the unrelenting instability rocking the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, provided a stark backdrop for the blunt comments of President Trump about NATOs need to do more on counterterrorism. NATO, then presidential-candidate Trumpsaidin May 2016, was obsolete.

NATO is not new to the CT mission, having invoked Article 5 for the first time after 9/11 and soon launching the largest combat operation in its history in Afghanistan in response to the terror attacks against the United States. NATO has developed particular expertise at training local security forces in Afghanistan to take on the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS and stabilize the country.

Similar NATO training missions have focused on CT capabilities in in the MENA region as well, including in Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. NATO surveillance planes support the anti-ISIS coalition, and at the NATO summit in May, the alliance announced it would become a full member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.

But given the nature of the terrorist threats today, it should not surprise anyone that bothformerandcurrentNATO secretaries general recently concluded there is more NATO can and should do on CT. Despite the near-term battlefield defeat of the so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq, the terrorism forecast is grim.

As ISIS loses territory, the terrorist threat it poses in the region through itsprovincesand terrorist cells and in the West may increase (at least in the short term) as it devolves from governance to insurgency and terrorism. Returning foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) present one threat, compounded by the social-media-driven phenomenon ofhomegrown violent extremism(HVE), which in turn can include a spectrum of terrorist threats from foreign-inspired, enabled or directed plots.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel with respect to the Syrian tragedy, a jihadist enterprise that has givenal-Qaedaa new lease on life, a group that is also resurgent in the Arabian Peninsula and in Africa. To Europes south,Libyapresents a variety of security threats that show no signs of abating and threaten stability across North Africa and into the Sahel, and, as the Manchester attack suggests, up into Europe as well.

Europols 2017TESAT reporthighlights the threats posed to Europe by regional instability outside the EU, including the Western Balkans, Caucasus, Africa, Middle East and in NATO-member Turkey.

The latest Global Trendsreportpublished by the U.S. National Intelligence Council focuses on two key trends that will significantly impact the future direction of theterroristthreat:

First, the resolution or continuation of the many intra- and inter-state conflicts currently underway most importantly, the Syrian civil war, but also conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the Sahel, Somalia, Yemen, and elsewhere will determine the intensity and geography of future violence.

The key factor this will impact is the spread of ungoverned space, which to date has created an environment conducive to extremism and encouraged the enlistment of thousands of volunteers eager to fight.

The second factor is how we deal today with the foreign fighter and migrant phenomena. If not properly managed, these will become the recruiting pools for tomorrows terrorist groups.

What more could NATO do in the counterterrorism arena?As the latest State Departmentreporton counterterrorism notes, NATOs added-value in the CT space comes in the three cones of its current strategy: improving threat awareness, developing CT capabilities and enhancing partner engagement.

The creation of a newNATO Strategic Direction-South (NSD-S) Hubin Naples is a welcome development and should help NATO improve situational awareness along NATOs southern flank and provide long-range, horizon-scanning analysis and policy recommendations for NATO HQ, SHAPE and the North Atlantic Council.

This effort should leverage resources to address both existing and future regional security challenges. NATO should play a greater role countering FTFs and the migrant crisis, as an example of current challenges. The EU counterterrorism coordinator hascalledfor increased connectivity between NATO soldiers and Europol for the timely sharing of biometric and other tactical intelligence collected in the field.

NATO could also do more on maritime security related to the EUs migrant crisis, he added. But the NSD-S Hub will have the biggest potential impact getting ahead of future problems by partnering NATO officers and analysts with academics and subject-matter experts to focus international engagement (primarily training) in areas that would benefit from being preemptively inoculated from projected instability.

For example, NATO could focus efforts to prevent the spread of violent extremist organizations in relatively stable but fragile states, such as Tunisia. This must be made a strategic priority over a 10-20-year horizon.

At the end of the day, the NSD-S Hub cannot be just a response to President Trump, in which case it will be focused more on being seen to be doing something rather than actually generating effects. To get ahead of the trajectory of the tomorrows terrorist threat, we must collectively address the two key factors laid out by the NIC: contending with the foreign terrorist fighters coming out of Syria and Iraq and addressing the festering conflicts that createlooming disequilibriaand the ungoverned spaces in which tomorrows threats can fester.

Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler fellow and director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that seeks to advance a realistic understanding of American interests in theMiddle Eastand to promote thepoliciesthat secure them.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

See the original post:
NATO's role in fighting post-caliphate ISIS looms large - The Hill (blog)