The militants failed to breach the gate of the base in Panjshir province's Rakha district, though they did hit a security tower with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Three of the men attacked on foot, shooting, while a fourth detonated the explosives-laden vehicle outside the gate, Jangalbagh said. The blast hit two fuel tankers which were waiting to enter the base, killing the Afghan drivers inside, he said.
But it was only four men. The attack really couldn't achieve more than a headline. Which they achieved. So mission accomplished, I guess. To really do some damage there would have needed to be more forces to penetrate the base perimeter had the car bomb blasted through the gate. More car bombs or infantry, for example. Instead, they just died at the gate.
Still, maybe they just wanted to beat the rush since we are heading east. If we can hold the gains in the south with mostly Afghan forces, and help keep the Taliban from fleeing north to less hospitable non-Pashtun areas, the east will be the last stand of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Then it will be a question of whether Pakistan helps on their side of the border, whether we can hammer the Pakistan-based Taliban regardless of what the Pakistanis decide, and whether the Afghans can cope with that new security environment with vastly reduced American and coalition troop support.
