FARAH, Afghanistan — Last summer, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Faqir Askar did not feel safe in his own office. Taliban roamed freely in the streets of this western provincial capital. He thought he could die at any moment.
“It was a bad situation,” said Askar, the Farah provincial police chief, in a recent interview. “At the time, I wasn’t a commander. I was a survivor”.
But things changed after the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment arrived in August, the chief said.
“When the 82nd came, they solved a lot of our problems,” Askar said.
The insurgency in Nimruz province to the south is worsening. The Marjah offensive in Helmand province to the east is still grinding on with no end in sight, and U.S. military officials have said that the campaign to secure Kandahar will last well into the fall, much longer than originally planned.
