Rocket City

A US camp in Afghanistan just 13 miles from the border with Pakistan is known as Rocket City because of all the rockets the taliban fires from the Pakistani side. I've never heard the Pakistani government complain about that, but the min US troops kill a taliban on Pakistan's side they're bitching and complaing. Reuters

The camp where Ortiz and Velez have spent the past 4-½ months on watch has been dubbed Rocket City for the number of missiles that rain down on it from the border region.

Although numbers have tapered off in recent weeks to just one or two a week, 'Rocket City' t-shirts are still in demand at the military shop on the base, a dusty collection of tents and low-rise buildings on the edge of a gravel air strip.

"One landed right there," says Ortiz, pointing to the camp's perimeter about 25 meters from the observation post, up a steep hill on the edge of the camp. "That made a pretty big noise, but most of the time they're way off target."

Velez, 21, drags on a cigarette and concurs.

"They're not really aiming. It's just fire and hope for these guys. They don't strike me as the smartest people."

....

That may or may not be the case, but the Taliban are still very much a threat. A much-vaunted winter offensive may not have occurred, but now spring has arrived and the passes through the mountains are more accessible, a renewed push is expected.

And with the possibility of a peace deal between Pakistan's new government and the Taliban-allied militants of Baitullah Mehsud on the northwest frontier of Pakistan, the U.S. military is braced for a fresh onslaught from over the border.

UPSURGE IN ATTACKS

"When I look at the map...my area of interest, the area that I'm concerned about, is on the other side of the border as well as on the Regional Command East (of Afghanistan)," U.S. Major General Jeffrey Schloesser told reporters on April 24.

"I would predict that we will see some level of increasing incidences of violence," he said.