Deadly weekend clashes in southern Afghanistan have highlighted the scale of the task facing NATO as it tackles the dual challenge of establishing security and promoting reconstruction to break a resilient Taliban insurgency.
Nearly 90 people were killed in a series of attacks in the deadliest weekend since NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took over command of the south from a US-led coalition on July 31.
In one attack overnight on Saturday, more than 70 rebels were killed by Afghan and NATO forces after they tried to storm a district headquarters in the southern province of Kandahar. Five Afghan police or soldiers also died.
PHOTO: AP
On Sunday, a British soldier was killed in a gunfight in neighboring Helmand Province, becoming the 10th ISAF soldier to die in hostile action since the takeover.
Other clashes claimed the lives of four US coalition soldiers in attacks on Saturday in the eastern province of Kunar and southern Uruzgan.
ISAF took over saying it would push reconstruction in the neglected area in a "hearts and minds" campaign intended to undermine support for the Taliban.
ISAF commander Lieutenant General David Richards told reporters at the time that he hoped the impact of a new emphasis on reconstruction while maintaining military efforts would be visible within three months.
Establishing security is the priority, spokesman Major Toby Jackman said.
"What has been made completely obvious to us ... is that the key requirement in the south is security. And that is what we are going to deliver," he said.
The around 10,000 ISAF troops in the south had come up "against some extremely stiff resistance," he said. "They [the rebels] have got a capability ... but in the overwhelming majority of cases we are defeating insurgents."
This year has seen a dramatic surge in the insurgency, with rebels launching more sophisticated attacks but security forces also inflicting heavy losses in the south.
The violence has increased as extra foreign troops, including British, Canadian and Dutch forces, moved into the south in preparation for the ISAF handover on July 31.
Officials have said the boosted security forces have penetrated areas previously controlled by Taliban and opium lords, prompting a backlash.
Most of the violence at the weekend was sparked by rebel attacks but the US-led coalition said the strikes were not part of a coordinated campaign.
"It is not like they are mounting an offensive that is sweeping through the south," spokesman Major Thomas Collins told reporters.
"There are these very local attacks that give the impression of an offensive, but we don't see any command and control at the upper echelons of the Taliban that suggest there is some kind of campaign to take over certain areas."
A UN spokesman said that the violence had not stalled development across the entire south, with reconstruction a key part of whittling away the insurgency.
"Within every province there are opportunities and there are threats with some districts that are relatively calm and others that are affected by the insurgency," Aleem Siddique said.
"We are confident that we can make a difference in those districts where the security situation allows us to," he said.
The UN was planning to increase its staff in the area with agencies such as UN Habitat, which builds shelters, and UNICEF, which cares for children, very active, he said.
However, polio cases have reportedly quadrupled in the area this year to 24, with officials saying that the insecurity has hindered vaccination programs.
"Granted the security situation does make it more difficult but that also increases our determination," Siddique said.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS