But he said it was obvious that the central government had not consulted with local commanders in planning the assault, citing the inability of the armored vehicles to fit through city streets.
The officers attached to UNAMSIL were tasked with assisting its commanders in planning and mounting operations and were led by a brigadier who became UNAMSIL's chief of staff, while in New York, the officers attached to UN headquarters provided planning support for logistics operations to bring UNAMSIL up to its mandated strength.
The committee also singled out Qari Zakir, a commander involved in planning many of the network's highest-profile suicide attacks, said Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador to the United Nations.
As that unit's commander, he was involved in planning the Battle of Kursk (1943) and helped to retrieve the German position when that battle ended in defeat.
Gen. David Petraeus, now commander of United States forces in Iraq, frequently consults with McMaster in planning his broader counterinsurgency campaign.
Nato commanders are planning a substantial offensive in eastern Afghanistan aimed at insurgent groups based in Pakistan, involving an escalation of aerial attacks on insurgent sanctuaries, and have not ruled out cross-border raids with ground troops.
U.S. Plans More Advisers After Claims of Iraq Abuse American commanders are planning a steep increase in the number of American soldiers advising Iraqi police commando units, in part to curtail human rights abuses that the units are suspected of inflicting on Sunni Arabs, a senior American commander in Iraq said.
But commanders are planning to capitalize on the overlap, which offers a natural, if temporary, increase in troop strength.
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attacks, stating on their website that they had intended to inflict heavy casualties on "enemies of the mujahideen" as a "message" to Nato commanders planning a major assault in the province later this year as a follow-up to last month's Operation Moshtarak around Marjah, in neighbouring Helmand.
For this battle, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George had placed Haig and the BEF under the orders of new French Commander-in-Chief (Robert Nivelle), who planned a major French Army offensive in Champagne.
Iran has always claimed it is participating in an advisory capacity in Syria, dispatching senior commanders to plan and oversee operations, but the Afghan involvement shows it is using other methods.
