National / International News
US, Nato plan big offensive in Helmand -Anwar Iqbal
, 08-Feb-2010 WASHINGTON: US and Nato forces are set to launch in southern Afghanistan this week a major offensive being described as the biggest assault of its kind since Vietnam four decades ago.
“Our basic strategy is, is to reverse the momentum of the Taliban; to deny them control of population centres and production centres,” said US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
A strike force of 15,000 US, British and Afghan troops will participate in this offensive in the Helmand province, aided by the biggest air assault since the first Gulf War of 1991.
US officials, while reluctant to endorse the media’s ‘exaggeration’, did acknowledge that it would be the largest offensive in the eight-year Afghan war.
The offensive, which includes a series of raids into the most dangerous areas of central Helmand, may begin within a week, although US and Nato officials are refusing to give a date.
“That’s as specific as I’d want to be. But it’s going to be relatively soon,” says Gen Stanley McChrystal, who commands US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.
A transcript released by the Pentagon this weekend, also quoted Secretary Gates as saying that they want to degrade the militants’ “capabilities to the point where a larger and better-trained Afghan national security force can manage the Taliban threat on a domestic basis and so that the security presence (of the international forces) can begin to diminish”.
In Britain, military officials have warned the public to “steel itself” for large numbers of casualties in this offensive named ‘Operation Moshtarak’.
Meanwhile, media reports from Afghanistan say that hundreds of civilians have begun fleeing the area before the anticipated Nato offensive.
Nato helicopters have dropped leaflets in and around Marja, warning people of the impending assault.
“We’re trying to signal to the Afghan people that we are expanding security where they live. We are trying also to signal to the insurgents, the Taliban primarily in this area and the narco-traffickers, that it’s about to change,” said Gen McChrystal.
“If they want to fight, then obviously that will have to be an outcome. But if they don’t want to fight, that’s fine too. If they want to reintegrate into the government … we’re not interested in how many Taliban we kill.”
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/us%2C-nato-plan-big-offensive-in-helmand-820
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