Operation Moshtarak: Assault in Helmand province - BBC News

[Yrys]

Operation Moshtarak: Assault in Helmand province

US and Afghan forces have begun a major offensive in Helmand province. British
forces are also preparing to play a key role. BBC News looks at the offensive and
its ultimate target.


OPERATION MOSHTARAK
Operation Moshtarak, which means "together" in the Dari language, involves more
than 15,000 Nato and Afghan troops.

The joint offensive in central Helmand involves American, Canadian, British,
Danish and Estonian forces.

-Nato says Afghan forces have been closely involved in planning, and are expected to
play a central role in the operation.

-Led by the US Marine Corps, it is the first major attack since the US sent 30,000 extra
troops to the country.

-The Marines are leading the main thrust of the offensive, focusing on Marjah,
an insurgent and drug-smuggling stronghold, south of Helmand's regional capital,
Lashkar Gah.

-In support, British forces are attempting to secure nearby Nad Ali district, to the north.
The idea is to clear the area of insurgents and allow forces to work with local institutions
to bolster reconstruction and provide support for the rule of law.

-The difference this time is the nature of the publicity surrounding the push. Troops have
been working with tribal elders to prepare the way.

-Analysts say it epitomises the new "counter-insurgency" approach of US and Nato
commander Gen Stanley McChrystal.

-Local people were warned about what was to come so they could protect themselves
and stay away from fighting.

-Thousands of Afghan civilians were reported to have fled before the operation began.
Troops are operating from Camp Bastion, Camp Leatherneck and also from Kandahar bases.
Preparations in the central Helmand area have been going on for weeks. Before the
offensive, British forces carried out a "softening up" exercise in Helmand province.

THE TARGET: MARJAH
-The US military has for some time signalled that it plans to take on the Taliban
in the town and district of Marjah. It has been targeted before.

-It lies in the heart of the poppy cultivation belt of southern Afghanistan - the centre
of opium production.

-It is known as the "green zone" of Helmand - a strip of irrigated land along the
main river. It is also known for the volatile insurgency that has bred in the district.

-In the 1950s, US development workers built the town to populate the arid desert
of southern Afghanistan. They helped to irrigate the area by constructing canals.

-But the district has more recently become a haven for hundreds of Taliban fighters
and is considered an assembly centre for roadside bombs.

-Dubbed a "festering sore" by a senior US Marine commander, Marjah has for a while
been regarded as one of the last main insurgent-controlled areas in southern Helmand.

-Before the offensive, US officials estimated there were between 400 and 1,000 Taliban
  - including some foreign fighters - in an area with a civilian population put at about
125,000.

-However, not all the Taliban are believed to be diehards, and those paid to fight may
just prefer to melt away in the face of superior force, military officials say.

-Marjah is about 40km (25 miles) from the strategically significant provincial capital
Lashkar Gah, and is one of the largest population centres in Helmand.

 

[Yrys]

Major offensive on Afghan Taliban

same link as : Latest news

Nato-led forces say they are making good progress hours after launching the
biggest offensive in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.
There were clashes as more than 15,000 US, UK and Afghan troops swept into
the Helmand districts of Marjah and Nad Ali in a bid to secure government control.
An Afghan commander said 20 militants had been killed. Two Nato soldiers, one
of which was British, have also died.

A Taliban commander reportedly said his men were retreating to spare civilians.
Operation Moshtarak - which means "together" in the local Dari language - is being
led by 4,000 US Marines, supported by 4,000 British troops, with Canadians, Danes
and Estonians.

Rest of article on the link

Analysis

"Operation Moshtarak will mark the start of the end of the insurgency."
With those words, Brig James Cowan, commander of British forces in
Helmand province signalled the start of the largest military operation in
Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.
...
The white flag of the Taliban flies from a crane raised above the town of
Showal in the north. It is the seat of the shadow government and will be
a key objective for British forces led by 1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh.
To the south-west lies the area of Marjah. Military planners believe it is
home to one of the largest concentrations of insurgents in Afghanistan,
and it is here where thousands of US marines are operating.

Rest of article on link

Diary

The BBC's Ian Pannell, embedded with British forces, is keeping a diary
about Operation Moshtarak.

NAD ALI / 13 FEBRUARY 2010 / 1630 (1200 GMT)
It's been a very successful day for British forces. They were able to move into
several key villages and establish a foothold. Broadly speaking they met little
resistance. There was some sporadic gunfire. One RPG was fired over the location
where we are based. It's fair to say that the Taliban decided to move out of
the district.

Unfortunately in terms of the overall strategy here - which is supposed to be population-
centred - many civilians have also left. The challenge in the coming days and weeks
is to persuade them to come back, to establish meaningful security and then allow
meaningful governance to take place. In the past of course, the Taliban has done
exactly the same: they've decided to pull out and come back at a time and a method
of their own choosing.

What will make a difference this time is if there is meaningful security established and
if the local people feel confident enough to place their faith in local security forces.
This is an operation that has only just begun and it will take weeks and months before
we know how successful it has been.

Rest of diary on link


Map (previous post link)

In pictures (10 of it)

 

[Yrys]

Nato's mission control at Kandahar Airbase, Afghanistan

Kandahar airport is at the centre of a fresh campaign by Nato and the Afghan
government for control of southern Afghanistan. BBC security correspondent
Frank Gardner, who was left partly paralysed in an attack by jihadi militants
in Saudi Arabia in 2004, paints a portrait of life in his new temporary home.
The RAF are used to flying people in wheelchairs. They do it the whole time.
It is just that they are normally coming out of Afghanistan, not going in the
other direction.

So, there were a few wry smiles as I rolled up to check-in before dawn at Brize
Norton airbase in Oxfordshire, for our team's 10-day embed with Nato troops in
Kandahar. "Your usual seat, Mr Gardner?" quipped someone far too chirpy for this
unreasonable hour of the day. Our ageing Tristar jet turned out to be unserviceable.
Apparently the batteries did not work and the cabin was overheating, so they put us
in another one. Lots of legroom upfront, I noticed, then I realised why. Stretchers.
"We fly the wounded straight back from theatre," said the aircrew.

Undignified arrival
Four-and-a-half time zones later, we readied ourselves for a night landing at Kandahar
airbase, with everyone onboard slipping into a practised drill. Off with the iPod and on
with the body armour and helmet. Lights out and blinds down. It is just a precaution
as the Taliban have a habit of firing the occasional Chinese-made rocket at the airbase.
The captain was in a jovial mood. "Welcome to Candy Bar," he announced, as his desert-
camouflaged passengers spilled out into the winter drizzle and I got carried down the
steps by the loadmaster.

After five years in a wheelchair, I have become quite accustomed to undignified arrivals.
We have come here to report on Operation Moshtarak, the much heralded Nato and
Afghan mission to push the Taliban out of their last major stronghold in central Helmand.
Nato commanders have realised that more than eight years of fighting and bombing
insurgents have won them few friends amongst the population, especially here in the
south, where ethnic Pashtuns predominate.

Incoming!
The new strategy, signed off by US President Barack Obama, emphasises protecting
civilians and working more closely with Afghan government forces. There is now an
admission that Nato, with all its military firepower and technology, has failed to bring
lasting security to much of the south. This is partly because until now there have not
been enough troops to hold the ground taken from the Taliban, and partly because
there has not been the political will in Kabul to follow up military success with good
governance.

But now the Americans have arrived in the south in huge force, and President Karzai
has been jolted by the international repugnance at last year's much-criticised elections.
So, this operation has been planned side by side with the Afghans, both politically and
militarily. The idea is to swiftly follow up the eviction of the Taliban by putting in place
newly trained police and a local government in waiting.

As long as good governance and the rapid delivery of services ensues, say British
officers, the residents of central Helmand will realise they are better off throwing in
their lot with the government than they were with the Taliban and the drug lords in
charge. That, at least, is the plan. Perhaps the insurgents had decided to express their
disapproval in the way they know best. Because shortly after dark on our first day the
sirens went up, just as we were wolfing down some supper in our cramped workspace
in a portable cabin.

"Incoming!"

Everyone knew the drill.

Down on the floor for two minutes then up and off to the nearest bunker until the
all-clear sounds on the camp loudspeakers. Kandahar Airbase is a vast sprawling place
about the size of London's Heathrow airport and with more than 25,000 servicemen,
women, and civilian contractors. So the chances of actually being struck by one of
these missiles is probably lower than being run over by a bus back home. Still,
everyone dreads the siren going off when they are on the loo.

Metal junk
The next morning, I was allowed a glimpse into the coalition briefing room - a sort of
military United Nations. Here, sitting before plasma screens giving the latest battlefield
updates, were grizzled US Marine Corp colonels, blond-haired Dutchmen, tanned British
cavalry officers and an Afghan liaison officer with an interpreter whispering constantly
in his ear.

But this was for me a bubble within a bubble. It did not feel like I was in Afghanistan.
In fact it did not feel like I was anywhere other than in a portable cabin colony
transplanted on to another planet. Kandahar base is an unlovely place. When I was
here in 2003, I could not wait to leave it, with its sad, lifeless trees, its abandoned
metal junk left over from the Soviet period and its stacked metal shipping containers.

But the airbase is busier than ever, with assorted Nato warplanes screaming down the
runway, troop-carrying helicopters hovering like hornets and the occasional, slightly
sinister, silhouette of a remotely piloted aircraft being guided into land by an RAF pilot
sitting in a windowless cabin. This is Nato's headquarters for the whole of the troubled
south, and whatever the outcome of Operation Moshtarak, Kandahar Airbase is
beginning to adopt a veneer of permanence.

The rusting metal containers dumped on the plains of Afghanistan are likely to be here
for a long time to come.

 

[Yrys]

Troops Take Positions in Taliban Haven, New York Times

Marines came under attack in Marja, a Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province,
after going to check a building they had bombed earlier in the day.

12  more pictures

KABUL, Afghanistan — American, Afghan and British troops seized crucial
positions across the Taliban stronghold of Marja on Saturday, encountering
intense but sporadic fighting as they began the treacherous ordeal of house-
to-house searches.

More than 6,000 American, Afghan and British troops came in fast early on
Saturday, overwhelming most immediate resistance. But as the troops began
to fan out on searches, fighting with Taliban insurgents grew in frequency
and intensity across a wide area. The pattern suggested that the hardest
fighting lay in the days to come.

One American and one British Marine were reported killed by small-arms fire,
but none from the Afghan Army, whose soldiers make up the majority of those
in the fight. Three American soldiers were killed and seven wounded when they
were attacked by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle during a foot patrol in
neighboring Kandahar Province. A second British soldier was killed by a homemade
bomb in southern Afghanistan in a blast unrelated to the operation in Marja.

NATO officials said that no civilian casualties had been reported. In the chaos,
the claim was impossible to verify. American commanders said the troops had
achieved every first-day objective. That included advancing into the city itself
and seizing intersections, government buildings and one of the city’s main bazaars
in the center of town.

Some Marines held meetings with local Afghans almost immediately to reassure
them and to ask for help in finding Taliban and hidden bombs. Mohammed Dawood
Ahmadi, a spokesman for Helmand Province’s governor, said Afghan and NATO forces
had set up 11 outposts across Marja and two in the neighboring town of Nad Ali. “We
now occupy all the strategic points in the area,” he said.

From those posts, Marines and soldiers began to go on patrols, searching door to door
for weapons and fighters. This phase of the operation, considered the most dangerous,
is expected to last at least five days. The biggest concern is bombs and booby-traps, of
which there are believed to be hundreds, in roads, houses and footpaths.

The invasion of Marja is the largest military operation of its kind here since the American-
backed war began eight years ago. The area, about 80 square miles of farmland, villages
and irrigation canals, is believed to be the largest Taliban sanctuary inside Afghanistan.
Afghan and American commanders believe there are also a number of opium factories
that the insurgents control to finance their war.

On the first full day of operations, much of the expected resistance failed to materialize.
Certainly there was none of the eyeball-to-eyeball fighting that typified the battle for
Falluja in Iraq in 2004, to which the invasion of Marja had been compared.

“Actually, the resistance is not there,” Abdul Rahim Wardak, the Afghan defense
minister, said in a news conference in Kabul. “Based on our intelligence reports, some
of the Taliban have left the area. But we still expected there to be several hundred.
Just yesterday, we received reports that reinforcements had arrived from neighboring
provinces.”

Dozens if not hundreds of insurgents probably fled Marja in the days leading up to
the assault, according to military officers and local residents. American and Afghan
commanders hoped to achieve just that result when they took the unusual step of
broadcasting their intention to invade Marja days ahead of time. But it seems likely
that many Taliban were still in Marja, lying in wait. One resident interviewed by
telephone said that many insurgents had stayed behind.

“I don’t have any information on the Taliban, neither where they are nor where they
have gone,” said Palawan, a farmer in Marja who goes by one name. “I don’t think
they have gone anywhere, because Marja has been surrounded by Afghan and foreign
forces on every side.”

What has been advertised as the most important, and novel, aspect of the Marja
operation got under way on Saturday. After clearing Marja, American and Afghan
officials say, they intend to import an entire Afghan civil administration, along with
nearly 2,000 Afghan police officers, to help keep the Taliban from coming back in.
The first of those, about 1,000 Afghan paramilitary police, were scheduled to begin
arriving within 24 hours.

rest of article on link

 

[Yrys]

Bombs slow coalition push into Taliban stronghold, CTV news

U.S. Marines point their rifles, scanning for Taliban fighters as they cover the departure
of a U.S. Army Pegasus medevac helicopter which picked up a wounded Marine from
their unit, in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010.
(AP / Brennan Linsley)

Thousands of U.S. and Afghan troops began a major offensive on Saturday by moving
into the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, but their progress was slowed by a dense thicket
of strategically placed bombs and booby traps. The air and ground offensive is largest
since the Afghan war began in 2001. It's aimed at establishing the authority of the
Afghan government in the region.

Marjah, in southern Helmand province, is the largest town under militant control. The
long-anticipated attack aims to break the Taliban's control of a wide area of the southern
heartland. Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, NATO commander of forces in southern Afghanistan,
said Afghan and coalition troops made a "successful insertion" into Marjah. He said the
operation was going "without a hitch."

The attack was bolstered by action further north. Thousands of British, U.S. and
Canadian troops moved into the Taliban areas to Marjah's north to clear out villages
that have been under Taliban control for years. At least 20 insurgents were reported
killed in the Helmand operation, said Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai, the commander
of Afghan forces in the region. Kalashnikov rifles, heavy machine-guns and grenades
have been seized from the 11 insurgents captured so far.

The long-anticipated attack on Marjah is the largest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion
of Afghanistan. It is also the first attack since U.S. President Barack Obama sent 30,000
American reinforcements to Afghanistan in December to try to reverse the direction of
the war. The attack began with more than 30 transport helicopters carrying NATO troops
into the centre of Marjah before dawn Saturday, as British, Afghan and U.S. troops
spread out across the Nad Ali district to the north.

The operation was well-publicized, in an attempt to clear civilians of the area,
CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer told CTV News Channel Saturday. Publicizing the attack
is part of a new NATO strategy aimed at protecting civilians.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on coalition troops to "exercise absolute caution
to avoid harming civilians." In a statement, he also asked insurgents to give up
violence and return to civilian life.

Taliban claim control of region

A Taliban spokesperson insisted that militants were maintaining their hold of Marjah
and resisting the coalition attack. "The Taliban are there and they are fighting. All of
Marjah is still under Taliban control," Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press.
He would not say how many Taliban fighters remained in Marjah but dismissed NATO
reports on the battle as "propaganda."

U.S. Marines involved in the attack told The Associated Press that Taliban posts on
the front lines of town seemed to have been abandoned, an elaborate network of
explosives and booby traps left in their wake proving the biggest obstacle for troops
on the ground. Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines,
said U.S. troops faced sustained gunbattles in four areas of Marjah. After the Marines
worked slowly through a suspected minefield and cleared civilian compounds of bombs,
their Afghan counterparts interviewed civilians.

Shopkeeper Abdul Kader, 44, said seven or eight Taliban fighters had fled in the middle
of the night. They had been holding the position where the Marines crossed over a
bridge. Kader expressed anger at the insurgents for planting bombs and mines around
his neighbourhood. "They left with their motorcycles and their guns. They went deeper
into town," he said, as Marines and Afghan troops searched a poppy field next to his
house. "We can't even walk out of our own houses."

Operation Moshtarak -- which means "together" in Dari -- involves more than 15,000
troops. The government says Afghan soldiers make up at least half of the offensive's
forces. There are about 30 Canadian mentors on the ground with an Afghan battalion,
Mackey Frayer said. "This is being seen as a test of the competence of the Afghan
forces,. Three Canadian CH147 Chinook helicopters, backed by four tactical Griffons,
were part of a wave of aircraft that launched the Marjah attack under darkened dawn
skies, carrying troops to the area.

After securing Marjah, a town of about 80,000 people about 610 kilometres southwest
of Kabul, NATO hopes to bring aid and public services to the region in Helmand province.
Returning those services will be key to the Afghan government's success in restoring
control of the region and keeping the Taliban from returning.

International development workers and Afghan officials are waiting to enter the area,
once coalition troops have made it sufficiently safe. Government officials have already
selected locations where they plan to build schools, clinics and mosques. Carter said
coalition forces hope to have an Afghan government presence in the region within the
next few days.

As part of that effort, a series of meetings are to be held with tribal elders in the area,
said NATO's civilian chief in Kabul, Mark Sedwill. "I can't yet say how long it will take
for this military phase to get to the point where we can bring in the civilian support
from the Afghan government. We hope that will happen quickly," Sedwill said.

With files from The Associated Press and a report from CTV's Janis Mackey Fraser in Afghanistan

 

[The Bread Guy]

- This, from ISAF Joint Command's Fact Sheet, via DVIDS:

.... The participants

A combined force of 15,000 is involved in Operation Moshtarak. This combined force includes:

Approximately five brigades of Afghan forces, including members of the Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Afghan Border Police and Afghan Gendarmerie (formerly Afghan National Civil Order Police).

ISAF Regional Command (South) elements, with forces drawn from the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia and Canada. These elements include:

1st Battalion, 3rd Marines (US)
1st Battalion, 6th Marines (US)
3rd Battalion, 6th Marines (US)
4th Battalion, 23rd IN Stryker (US)
Combat Engineer Battalion (US)
Light Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (US)
1 Coldstream Guards Battle Group (UK)
1 Grenadier Guards Battle Group (UK)
1 Royal Welsh Battle Group (UK)
Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team (UK)
Operational Mentor and Liaison Team (UK)
Task Force Pegasus
Task Force Kandahar ....

- Institute for the Study of War's "Operation Moshtarak:  Preparing for the Battle of Marjah"  (Introduction - 6 pg. PDF report)

- Lies News from the Taliban:
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/91888/post-910935#msg910935
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/91888/post-911036#msg911036

 

[Yrys]

Allied Troops Seize Taliban Posts; Fighting Is Sporadic, New York Times

Attack Gives Marines a Taste of War

MARJA, Afghanistan — The helicopters landed before dawn Saturday in a poppy
field beside a row of mud-walled compounds. The Marines ran into the darkness
and crouched through the rotor-whipped dust as their aircraft lifted away.

For the Marines of Company K, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, the assault into
the last large Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province was beginning. For almost
all of them, this was to be their first taste of war. And an afternoon of small-arms
combat was ahead. But at first, these Marines, the vanguard for 6,000 NATO and
Afghan troops streaming in to loosen the Taliban’s grip here permanently, met no
resistance. On the last miles of the ride in, the Marines were silent as the aircraft
flew 200 feet above freshly sprouting fields. Irrigation canals glittered beneath the
portholes, rolling past fast.

They did not know what to expect, beyond the fact that at least hundreds of
insurgents were waiting for them, and that many would fight to keep their hold
on this opium-poppy production center. Company K is part of what many Marines
call a surge battalion, one of the units assigned to Afghanistan after President Obama
decided last year to increase the American troop level on the ground. It arrived in
Afghanistan a month ago, and had waited for this moment. Its introduction to the war
was a crash course.

As helicopter wheels touched soil, the aircraft filled with whoops, and the Marines stood
and bolted for the tail ramp. They moved briskly. Within minutes, the first Marines of
Third Platoon were entering compounds to the landing zone’s north, checking for enemy
fighters and booby traps. The rest of the platoon followed through the gate.

Sergeants and corporals urged a steady pace. “Go! Go! Go!” they said, spicing
instructions with foul words. By 3 a.m., Company K had its toehold. The company’s
mission was to seize the area around the major intersection in northern Marja, clear
a village beside it and hold it. By drawing this assignment, the company had become
its battalion’s lead unit — sent alone and out front into Taliban territory. It had been
told to hold its area until other companies, driving over the ground and clearing hidden
explosives from the roads, worked down from the northwest and caught up.

Second Platoon took a position to the west, to block Route 605, a main road. First
Platoon was to the east, watching over another likely Taliban avenue of approach. Third
Platoon gathered in the southernmost compounds, with orders to sweep north and clear
the entire village.

Third Platoon’s commander, First Lt. Adam J. Franco, ordered a halt until dawn. A canal
separated the platoon from the village. The company had been warned of booby traps.
Lieutenant Franco chose to cross the canal with daylight, reducing the risks of a Marine’s
stepping on an unseen pressure plate that would detonate an explosive charge. “Hold
tight,” he said into his radio. The noncommissioned officers paced in the blackness,
counting and recounting every man.

Being the lead company had drawbacks. The Marines had been told that ground
reinforcements and fresh supplies might not reach them for three days. This meant
they had to carry everything they would need during that time: water, ammunition,
food, first-aid equipment, bedrolls, clothes and spare batteries for radios and night-
vision devices. As they jogged forward, the men grunted and swore under their burdens,
which in many cases weighed 100 pounds or more. Some carried five-gallon jugs of
water, others hauled stretchers, rockets, mortar ammunition or bundles of plastic
explosives and spools of time-fuse and detonating cord.

In Third Platoon, two teams carried collapsible aluminum footbridges, each about 25 feet
long when extended, which the platoon would use to cross the canal. At daybreak, Third
Platoon bounded across one of its bridges and into the village, and dropped its
backpacks and extra equipment, moving forward without excess weight. The Taliban
initially chose not to fight, and the company’s first sweeps were uneventful.

At 8:30 a.m., as one of the squads searched buildings, a gunshot sounded just behind
the walls. The Marines rushed toward the door, guns level to their eyes, ready for their
first fight. A shout carried over the wall. “Dog!” the voice said. A Marine had fired a
warning shot at an attacking dog, scaring it off. The young Marines shook their heads.
Minutes later, gunfire erupted to the south, where another unit, First Battalion, Sixth
Marines, had also inserted Marines.

rest of article on link

 

[Edward Campbell]

Here, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today’s Ottawa Citizen is a report on the Canadian contribution:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Canadians+take+skies+major+Afghan+offensive/2564006/story.html

Canadians take to skies for major Afghan offensive



BY MATTHEW FISHER, REUTERS

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

British soldiers from the First Battalion The Royal Welsh shelter from the down force of a helicopter as they mobilise for Operation Moshtarak, a combined force of 15,000 troops launching major assaults on Taliban strongholds in Helmand Province, at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan February 13, 2010.
Photograph by: Handout , Reuters

NAD-E-ALI, Afghanistan — It was door gunner Sgt. Grant Lucas who spotted two men with AK-47 assault rifles eyeing his Canadian Chinook helicopter from a distance of perhaps 100 metres.

But neither man seemed interested in engaging Lucas and his M240 heavy machine-gun on Saturday morning. Or perhaps they were mindful that a pair of Canadian Griffon helicopters with Gatling guns were circling overhead.

“I would have done exactly what they did,” said the 40-year-old flight engineer from Kingston, Ont. “They played it cool.”

So the moment of high drama passed suddenly and the bus-like transport helicopter from Edmonton’s 408 Squadron shuddered into the sky to return to Camp Bastion to ferry another load of Royal Welsh infantrymen, who were part of the biggest offensive yet of NATO’s long war against the Taliban.

More than a day into the offensive, NATO officials said Sunday that sporadic and occasionally intense fighting had been reported, particularly on the southern outskirts of Marja, in Helmand Province, where U.S. Marines were deployed alongside several Afghan battalions.

However, as had been anticipated, the greatest obstacle so far has not been the Taliban, who have either fled or hunkered down. It has been trying to avoid the huge number of improvised explosive devices that they have scattered everywhere.

While the mission has been going well militarily for NATO, in a terse release late Sunday the International Security Assistance Force reported that two rockets from an artillery rocket system had killed 12 civilians in Nad-e-Ali. The rockets had been aimed at insurgents, but misfired, landing 300 metres off target, NATO said.

Minimizing civilian conflicts has been a constant mantra of American Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commands NATO forces in Afghanistan.

“We deeply regret this tragic loss of life,” McChrystal in a statement. “The current operation in Central Helmand is aimed at restoring security and stability to this vital area of Afghanistan. It’s regrettable that in the course of our joint efforts, innocent lives were lost."

Underlining the sensitives associated with such tragedies, the general ordered that all use of such rockets be halted until an investigation into what had gone wrong was completed.

Among the 6,000 NATO combat troops committed to the fight for Nad-e-Ali and Marja are about three dozen Canadian soldiers attached as mentors to a Kandahar-based Afghan battalion that was quietly dispatched 160 kilometres to the west to Helmand several weeks ago. The Afghans from Kandak 1, 1st Brigade, 205 Corps and their Canadian mentors, who go with them everywhere, had already been in a few firefights with the Taliban since Operation Moshtarak (or “Together”) was launched Saturday.

The Marines and their Afghan allies around Marja, and British and Afghan troops just to the north of them around Nad-e-Ali, have been slowly tightening a noose around an area that has long been a sanctuary for the Taliban and its foreign allies.

As NATO and Afghan forces have advanced, officials from the Afghan government and police have closely followed in their wake.

Two shuras — or meetings of leaders — have already been held in Marja and Nad-e-Ali, at which local elders were promised government services such as schools and medical care — services the government has long been unable to deliver because the Taliban has been firmly in charge.

The Helmand ground campaign is a test for NATO’s war strategy and Afghanistan’s rapidly expanding army. But Canada’s helicopter assault early Saturday morning into the muddy farmland on the outskirts of Nad-e-Ali was also a test for its helicopter crews, as they had never before been part of such a large or complicated mission.

In an operation that was timed to the minute, seven Canadian helicopter crews hit eight separate time markers during nearly two hours in which they were part of an aerial armada of about 90 choppers supported by fighter jets and unmanned spy planes.

“It was a nice dance, perfectly orchestrated,” said Col. Christian Drouin, Task Force’s Kandahar’s wing commander, after watching the action on a video feed that was beamed back to a British operations centre from a drone flying over the battlefield.

Lt.-Col. Jeff Smith, who was the senior Canadian in the air, returned to Camp Bastion “very impressed” by what he had seen. “Air mobile, on target, on time. To within 15 seconds.”

There weren’t any high-fives or cheers, but there was a genuine sense of euphoria as each of the aircrews climbed out of their helicopters after the mission.

“You just couldn’t take a time out. You had to pay attention in all phases of flight,” said Capt. Mathieu Bergeron, who flew Blow Torch 61, the lead Chinook in the air assault.

“Everything was carefully deconflicted in time and space but you had to stay vigilant because things don’t always turn out as planned.”

One of those moments occurred when Bergeron’s helicopter went up to its axle in mud when it landed close to a farming compound early Saturday. But the chopper’s powerful rotors were able to pull his craft out of the muck.

Saturday’s success was particularly welcome for Canada’s helicopter force, which has often felt like an orphan after decades of neglect by Liberal and Conservative governments. All that began to change when the Manley Commission demanded that Canada buy transport helicopters for Afghanistan because they were deemed mission-essential.

Since Chinooks with Maple Leaf rondelles on their fuselages began flying in Afghanistan 13 months ago, they have played a vital role in keeping Canadian ground troops safely supplied at distant outposts that were previously supplied by road. But until Saturday, when they took several embedded journalists on the operation with them, the Canadian air force had never been part of such a massive multinational operation.

“Doing something with one or two Chinooks is always a big deal, but this was of another magnitude,” Bergeron said. “We really appreciated being part of something bigger.”

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Well done, Canadian Air Force!

 

[The Bread Guy]

Uh, like THIS is going to help in the short term - this, from the Canadian Press:

The United Nations will not be involved in NATO's reconstruction plans for Marjah, the target of an ongoing military offensive, U.N. officials said Wednesday, expressing concerns about the military's expanding role in humanitarian assistance.

"We ... are not part of that process. We do not wish to be part of that process because we would not want to have the humanitarian activities we deliver to be linked with military activity," said Robert Watkins, the deputy special representative of the secretary-general.

(....)

NATO officials have unveiled a strategy to rush in development aid and government services as soon as the town is secured in a bid to win over the loyalty of Afghan residents.

However, U.N. officials say the increasing "militarization of aid" puts at risk the work of humanitarian agencies - whose activities in Afghanistan are already constrained by poor security, particularly in the volatile south and east of the country.

"Distribution of aid by military gives a very wrong signal to communities about the impartiality of this assistance and puts the lives of humanitarian workers at risk if they are in any way associated with the military," Watkins said.

The danger lies in the fact that anything linked to the military is not seen as neutral, said Wael Haj-Ibrahim, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan.

"If that aid is being delivered as part of a political or military strategy, the counterstrategy is to try and destroy that aid," Haj-Ibrahim said.

For that reason, the U.N. has asked the military not to deliver basic services such as food and health care or build clinics or schools, he said ....

While I understand the UN's search for complete neutrality of aid, how the @#$% do you get aid to folks when there's still shooting and explosions about, and Taliban hunting anyone wanting to co-operate with Kabul?  :