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11-04-2010, 10:32 AM
Afghani villagers get stronger against Taliban
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By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
Military commanders in southern Afghanistan say successful coalition offensives have slashed the Taliban's ability to fund operations and have boosted the confidence of Afghan villagers to form defense groups against the insurgents.
However, the commanders say the insurgency is still active in the south — the traditional stronghold of the Taliban — and its strength has yet to be determined.
Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, who commands 30,000 servicemembers in and around Helmand province, told USA TODAY that offensives by coalition and Afghan forces have helped disrupt the drug trafficking that the Taliban relies on to fund weapons and payments to fighters.
Credible intelligence reports indicate the money going to insurgents in Helmand province, which had been a major stronghold for the Taliban, has been cut in half, forcing the fighters to scrounge for weapons, ammunition and other supplies, he said.
Mills said the insurgents in the province are being forced to dig up caches of aging weapons and ammunition because they can't afford to buy new weaponry.
Commanders in Kandahar province, the traditional homeland of the Pashtun Taliban, also note progress.
"What we find increasingly is that the resources available to them are becoming squeezed," said British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, who completed his tour this week as commander of Regional Command South.
Mills said the presence of U.S. and Afghan forces in Helmand province have made it difficult for the Taliban to strong-arm poppy farmers into giving it a cut. Insurgents have also disrupted the Taliban's ability to process heroin and smuggle it out of the country. The province is where most of Afghanistan's poppy crop is grown. The poppies are processed into heroin and sold for cash.
Military operations were only part of the reason the Taliban has lost drug revenue. A blight on poppy crops hurt the most recent harvest, Mills and Carter said.
The U.S. strategy calls for turning over security to Afghan forces as they become ready to assume responsibility. Mills said that in some areas of the province that turnover will occur "relatively soon" if current trends continue.
The offensive in Helmand province is the first stage of a counterinsurgency strategy backed by 30,000 additional servicemembers ordered into Afghanistan by President Obama. There are now about 100,000 U.S. servicemembers there.
Some analysts say military successes in the south may mean problems elsewhere in the country. Stephanie Sanok, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Taliban activity has increased in the north in recent months and along the border with Pakistan.
"As we squeeze insurgents in the south I think they do go elsewhere," said Sanok, who served in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. "I'm heartened by the progress that I've heard we've made, but it's too early to call it a trend."
Carter said he cannot be certain that the Taliban has been weakened militarily until he sees its strength in June, the traditional start of the fighting season.
Some analysts say that military victories are not enough. They say efforts to rebuild government institutions and tackle corruption must succeed to keep the Taliban out of the regions for good.
"The ultimate solution — government and rule of law — so far has proven elusive," said Paul Hughes, a retired Army colonel and Iraq veteran at the Institute of Peace, a government-funded think tank. "If there's nothing to follow up with, you're just shadow boxing."
In Marjah, the United Nations and others have reported that the Afghan government and coalition forces have been unable to build an effective local government that satisfies residents. Small groups of Taliban fighters have filtered back into the area and are causing trouble.
A town of about 80,000 people, Marjah had been under Taliban control until its fighters were dislodged in February in one of the largest military operations since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.
Mills said insurgents are hiding out in remote towns, but "he's been relegated to the night."
Mills sees signs that ordinary Afghans in Helmand province are unhappy with the Taliban, which opens an opportunity for the coalition. "We are beginning to see numerous accounts of neighborhoods where locals are pushing back really hard on the insurgents when they come in to town in the evenings to collect their taxes and conduct their murder and intimidation campaigns."
Coalition forces in the province are planning to support the establishment of locally based self-defense units. The initiative loosely resembles U.S. efforts in 2006 in Iraq's Anbar province, where tribal leaders who had shielded al-Qaeda terrorists but grew tired of their brutal tactics were encouraged by the coalition to join its fight.
Tribal leaders urged their men to join the police forces in what was dubbed the "Awakening," and helped turn the tide in Iraq.
In Helmand province, the groups will initially not be armed and will be trained and organized by teams of U.S. Marines and British soldiers, according to Mills.
Later the Afghan government may issue them weapons and integrate them into the Afghan security forces.
Mills said about five such self-defense groups would be established first, including one in Marjah, with about 50 members in each force.
"We're going to take pretty quick action on getting them going," Mills said.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/afghanistan/2010-11-04-taliban04_ST_N.htm?csp=34news
*
By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
Military commanders in southern Afghanistan say successful coalition offensives have slashed the Taliban's ability to fund operations and have boosted the confidence of Afghan villagers to form defense groups against the insurgents.
However, the commanders say the insurgency is still active in the south — the traditional stronghold of the Taliban — and its strength has yet to be determined.
Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, who commands 30,000 servicemembers in and around Helmand province, told USA TODAY that offensives by coalition and Afghan forces have helped disrupt the drug trafficking that the Taliban relies on to fund weapons and payments to fighters.
Credible intelligence reports indicate the money going to insurgents in Helmand province, which had been a major stronghold for the Taliban, has been cut in half, forcing the fighters to scrounge for weapons, ammunition and other supplies, he said.
Mills said the insurgents in the province are being forced to dig up caches of aging weapons and ammunition because they can't afford to buy new weaponry.
Commanders in Kandahar province, the traditional homeland of the Pashtun Taliban, also note progress.
"What we find increasingly is that the resources available to them are becoming squeezed," said British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, who completed his tour this week as commander of Regional Command South.
Mills said the presence of U.S. and Afghan forces in Helmand province have made it difficult for the Taliban to strong-arm poppy farmers into giving it a cut. Insurgents have also disrupted the Taliban's ability to process heroin and smuggle it out of the country. The province is where most of Afghanistan's poppy crop is grown. The poppies are processed into heroin and sold for cash.
Military operations were only part of the reason the Taliban has lost drug revenue. A blight on poppy crops hurt the most recent harvest, Mills and Carter said.
The U.S. strategy calls for turning over security to Afghan forces as they become ready to assume responsibility. Mills said that in some areas of the province that turnover will occur "relatively soon" if current trends continue.
The offensive in Helmand province is the first stage of a counterinsurgency strategy backed by 30,000 additional servicemembers ordered into Afghanistan by President Obama. There are now about 100,000 U.S. servicemembers there.
Some analysts say military successes in the south may mean problems elsewhere in the country. Stephanie Sanok, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Taliban activity has increased in the north in recent months and along the border with Pakistan.
"As we squeeze insurgents in the south I think they do go elsewhere," said Sanok, who served in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. "I'm heartened by the progress that I've heard we've made, but it's too early to call it a trend."
Carter said he cannot be certain that the Taliban has been weakened militarily until he sees its strength in June, the traditional start of the fighting season.
Some analysts say that military victories are not enough. They say efforts to rebuild government institutions and tackle corruption must succeed to keep the Taliban out of the regions for good.
"The ultimate solution — government and rule of law — so far has proven elusive," said Paul Hughes, a retired Army colonel and Iraq veteran at the Institute of Peace, a government-funded think tank. "If there's nothing to follow up with, you're just shadow boxing."
In Marjah, the United Nations and others have reported that the Afghan government and coalition forces have been unable to build an effective local government that satisfies residents. Small groups of Taliban fighters have filtered back into the area and are causing trouble.
A town of about 80,000 people, Marjah had been under Taliban control until its fighters were dislodged in February in one of the largest military operations since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.
Mills said insurgents are hiding out in remote towns, but "he's been relegated to the night."
Mills sees signs that ordinary Afghans in Helmand province are unhappy with the Taliban, which opens an opportunity for the coalition. "We are beginning to see numerous accounts of neighborhoods where locals are pushing back really hard on the insurgents when they come in to town in the evenings to collect their taxes and conduct their murder and intimidation campaigns."
Coalition forces in the province are planning to support the establishment of locally based self-defense units. The initiative loosely resembles U.S. efforts in 2006 in Iraq's Anbar province, where tribal leaders who had shielded al-Qaeda terrorists but grew tired of their brutal tactics were encouraged by the coalition to join its fight.
Tribal leaders urged their men to join the police forces in what was dubbed the "Awakening," and helped turn the tide in Iraq.
In Helmand province, the groups will initially not be armed and will be trained and organized by teams of U.S. Marines and British soldiers, according to Mills.
Later the Afghan government may issue them weapons and integrate them into the Afghan security forces.
Mills said about five such self-defense groups would be established first, including one in Marjah, with about 50 members in each force.
"We're going to take pretty quick action on getting them going," Mills said.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/afghanistan/2010-11-04-taliban04_ST_N.htm?csp=34news