Wanat AAR

Military.com's Kit-up blog has a brief summary of the Taliban's performance in the Battle of Wanat, in which Afghan insurgents nearly overran an isolated US outpost in eastern Afghanistan on 18 July 2008.

The attack showed more tactical sophistication than the Taliban are usually given credit for:

Initial enemy fire was accurate enough to target effectively COP Kahler’s most powerful weapon systems. The TOW vehicle was destroyed by several RPG hits fired at short range. None actually hit the TOW system itself, which theoretically could have been removed from the vehicle and mounted on the ground until the ammunition caught fire. While insurgent fire neutralized the mortars, it also damaged the enemy position in the bazaar.

Had the Taliban changed one key element of their tactics, they might have won a rare tactical victory over Coalition forces:

While the insurgents massed a relatively large force to attack Wanat, not all their forces appear to have been committed at the same time. Had they done so, the effect may have been decisive.

This might have had serious political consequences given the already-shaky public support for the war.

The entire 270-page report on the Battle of Wanat is available on-line from the Army's Command and General Staff College.

By: Guardian