The assault began Tuesday night when at least three attackers blew up the rear wall of the elite police compound in a Taliban -saturated part of Kandahar . Although it was initially thought to be a car bomb, Davis said explosives planted alongside the compound wall caused the first blast.
As Afghan and American forces inside the base rushed to fend off the attack, Taliban fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns during a half-hour battle that killed three American soldiers, one Afghan police officer and five Afghans working with the U.S.-led coalition forces, NATO officials said.
The assault — which involved at least three Taliban suicide bombers — was the latest in a series of well-planned Taliban strikes that are forcing American and Afghan forces to adapt.
In the past two months, Taliban fighters have used similar tactics to hit major coalition military bases in Kandahar , Bagram and Jalalabad.
Look, all this is saying that the enemy sent in a preliminary bombardment (suicide bombers) who attempted to breach the perimeter, before the enemy attacked using longer range rocket propelled grenades and machine guns. This represents a giant step up from "scream and leap" tactics or "pray and spray" technique.
But in the end, even with rudimentary tactical skills, the enemy attacks have no hope of actually winning. At best, this will allow them to penetrate the perimeter before being killed rather than dying outside the perimeter.
That's progress of a sort for the enemy, but nothing to write home about. The Taliban would need to be able to mass a lot more attackers with basic tactical knowledge before it does them any good.
