Operation Unified Resolve

Operation Unified Resolve is an air and ground operation to flush out and trap al-Qaeda fighters hiding in the eastern Afghanistan provinces.

Launched on 23 June 2003, Operation Unified Resolve is a joint operation between Pakistan, United States, and Afghanistan. Over 500 troops, mostly from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, began hunting the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in the provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar on Afghanistan's eastern border. The operation is especially focused on the city of Jalalabad, a known al-Qaeda stronghold strategically located on the main route between the Afghan capital Kabul and Pakistan city of Peshawar.

Anti-coalition forces, led by former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, have attacked coalition forces with their usual retinue of rockets, mines, and bobby traps. Hekmatyar has been organizing alliances between the remaining anti-coalition forces in the area and increasing their coordination.

In addition to hunting the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, Operation Unified Resolve also distributes humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people in the nearby valleys.

Famous quotes containing the words operation, unified and/or resolve:

    Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.
    Francis Bacon (1560–1626)

    Under weak government, in a wide, thinly populated country, in the struggle against the raw natural environment and with the free play of economic forces, unified social groups become the transmitters of culture.
    Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)

    There’s no telling what might have happened to our defense budget if Saddam Hussein hadn’t invaded Kuwait that August and set everyone gearing up for World War IIĀ½. Can we count on Saddam Hussein to come along every year and resolve our defense-policy debates? Given the history of the Middle East, it’s possible.
    —P.J. (Patrick Jake)