An MQ-9 Reaper taxis down a runway in Afghanistan. The Reaper has been flying in Afghanistan since September; it flew its first combat mission in Iraq on July 19. STAFF SGT. BRIAN FERGUSON / AIR FORCE From Yahoo News/AP:
WASHINGTON – U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan are assembling a potent intelligence-gathering operation to help defeat the Taliban insurgency, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday.
A combination of unmanned aerial vehicles and sensor-laden aircraft with links to ground forces will give commanders an "unblinking eye" over the war-torn country, Michael Vickers, the Pentagon's top special operations official, said.
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My Comment: The U.S. military are preparing to use in Afghanistan the same methods and tactics that were used to eliminate Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in Iraq. The priority .... establishing a network of informers and spies to be the crucial tool to pinpoint and target Taliban commanders and their facilitators. The Reapers and other drones will take care of the rest.
This is a major escalation in the war in Afghanistan, and if successful it will become one of the chief operating tools in counter insurgency operations.