KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) — About 500 Taliban massed near Kandahar city on Monday as Afghan and NATO security forces sent reinforcements after a brazen rebel attack that busted more than 1,000 prisoners out of jail.

"We're preparing to launch an operation on them soon," said provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb.

Saqeb said dozens of families fearing fighting had fled two villages in the Arghandab district near Kandahar, where Friday's Taliban suicide-and-gun attack blew a hole in the main jail and allowed the inmates to flee.

He would not confirm whether the Taliban gathered in the villages included the 400 militants set free in the attack.

Afghanistan's defence ministry and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul meanwhile said they were redeploying troops to respond to a "potential threat" from the escaped prisoners.

Defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said several Afghan army units were dispatched and more units were on their way to reinforce troops already in the restive southern province.

NATO officials said the force was also "redeploying to meet potential threats" from escaped Taliban rebels.

"It's fair to say that the jailbreak put lots of people into circulation that weren't before. Obviously you're going to respond to that potential threat," NATO civilian spokesman Mark Laity told a news conference.

Azimi said the redeployment was aimed at hunting the escaped prisoners as well as "clearing the enemy" in the province.

"The hunt for the escaped prisoners forcefully continues. If the enemy intends any movement they'll be forcefully hit," Azimi said.

"We assure the people of Afghanistan and the people of Kandahar in particular that the clearance operation continues and will continue," he added.

General Carlos Branco, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), gave assurances that the district would not be taken over by the Taliban, whose movement has its roots in Kandahar province.

"Don't come with these black pictures that Arghandab is on the brink to fall into the hands of the Taliban. That's nonsense," Branco told the same news briefing.

The jailbreak was a blow to President Hamid Karzai, coming one day after world donors pledged 20 billion dollars to rebuild Afghanistan at a conference in Paris but also called on him to strengthen the rule of law.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 16 -- Hundreds of Taliban fighters took control of seven villages in southern Afghanistan on Monday in what appeared to be a major offensive near the country's second-largest city, according to Afghan officials.

An estimated 500 Taliban fighters swept into several villages in the Arghandab district, about 15 miles northwest of Kandahar, officials said. Agha Lalai Wali, an official with the government-sponsored Peace and Reconciliation Commission in Kandahar, said the fighters surged into the area Sunday evening, setting up several checkpoints in the district. Wali said local residents had reported seeing dozens of fighters believed to be of Pakistani and Arab origin traveling in the area in pickup trucks shortly before the incursion.

The Taliban's seizure of the villages comes three days after an audacious prison break at a Kandahar jail, in which an estimated 1,000 to 1,200 prisoners, many of them Taliban fighters, escaped.

A spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, Brig. Gen. M. Zaher Azimi, said Monday evening that hundreds of Afghan army troops were being deployed to the south from the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere around the country to mount a counteroffensive following the attacks in Arghandab.

Officials with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said Western troops were also being redeployed to support Afghan forces leading the counteroffensive. A spokesman for the force, Gen. Carlos Brancos, said he could not confirm that the Taliban had taken control of the villages in Arghandab, but said ISAF officials had received "information that Taliban insurgents were active in the area."

Kandahar, a city of roughly 450,000 people, is considered the birthplace of the Taliban, and fighters trying to infiltrate the city have frequently used Arghandab as a gateway. Arghandab was relatively peaceful until Mullah Naqib, a local leader known for keeping the peace, died there last year. It has since been the scene of several fierce firefights between NATO forces and insurgents.
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According to Afghan officials, Taliban fighters have said they plan to march on Kandahar from Arghandab.

"The Taliban are getting stronger and stronger, and after they attacked the prison, that gave them higher morale," Wali said.

Ask any veteran to name the person they remember most from their service, and I’ll lay you even odds that he or she will talk about one of their non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Sergeants (or petty officers, for you Navy types) are the backbone of the American Armed forces – they are a large part of what makes our units so simultaneously lethal and flexible. This week’s Army Times carried a sad story of what happened when one senior NCO simply couldn’t bear such a burden any longer:

Everything changed July 11 in the bright sunshine of Adhamiyah, Iraq. That day, while out on a simple meet-and-greet patrol, [First Sergeant Jeff] McKinney stepped out of his Humvee and yelled. “F— this!” He raised the barrel of his M4 [rifle] to his chin and squeezed off one shot. The first sergeant — who sang Sesame Street songs to his men and teased them just enough to make them feel like family — left his soldiers shattered.

For those not familiar with the role of the first sergeant (1SG), some clarifications may help. If NCOs are the backbone of the American Army, the 1SG is the steel spine of the company. While the soldiers of the company take their orders from the lieutenants and captains who lead the company, they seek guidance and counsel from the 1SG, who runs it. The 1SG is arguably the most influential person in the company – a good one can hold the unit through some incredibly tough times, while a bad one can run a group of great professionals right into the ground.

How does that happen? How does a veteran soldier and leader, a man with decades of experience, come to lose all hope and take his own life? The cumulative impact of this burden on the 1SG is immense. They are expected to be many things to many people: advisor to the commander on all aspects of the company’s operations, mentor and example to the mid-level NCOs who are seeking to find their own way, and counselor and disciplinarian to the junior soldiers of the company. The 1SGs responsibilities on any given day are as broad as they are critical: resupply, field feeding, administration, and equipment maintenance, just to name a few. In combat, add to that the crushing duty of casualty evacuation – getting the dead and wounded to places on the battlefield where they can be properly cared for. Throughout it all, the high standard of the NCO Creed hangs over them as a constant expectation:

…Competence is my watchword. My two basic responsibilities will always be uppermost in my mind — accomplishment of my mission and the welfare of my soldiers. I will strive to remain tactically and technically proficient … All soldiers are entitled to outstanding leadership; I will provide that leadership. I know my soldiers and I will always place their needs above my own. I will communicate consistently with my soldiers and never leave them uninformed. I will be fair and impartial when recommending both rewards and punishment…

We hold these men and women in such awe that, sometimes, we forget that they are only human. The frustrations and tensions of a three-block war wear on them just as much as on any other soldier. But when another hot, frustrating patrol comes to its end, the private can always go back and punch a wall locker, play some XBox, or simply grab some much-needed rack time. But for the 1SG, there’s always another task, more duties, more of the beast that needs to be fed, that can keep them away from their own much-needed decompression.

All too often, leaders (both officer and NCO) forget that they need “maintenance” just as much as the complex machines that power their fighting skills. Some of this, I suspect, is an attempt to deny one’s own humanity – a desperate attempt to keep your mortality at bay, lest it surface at an inopportune moment with catastrophic consequences for those under your charge. Part of it is the “Mission, Men, Me” ethos that gets drilled into leaders – leaders are supposed to eat last, sleep last, and generally come after their soldiers in all areas, which in turn get subordinated to the needs of the task at hand. Mark Grimsley, a military historian of great renown, got it exactly right when he wrote (in response to this TIME article):

I wonder how many officers and NCOs self-disclose that they are taking the same [anti-anxiety] meds. If they keep this info away from their soldiers, they send a double message: overtly it’s OK for you to take these meds, but tacitly it’s really not because I wouldn’t be caught dead letting you know that I take them myself. It would require real moral courage, but an officer willing to talk matter-of-factly about taking these meds, and at the same time functioning effectively as an officer, would serve as a powerful role model.