Kandahar Operation: Victory In Sight?

[GUNNER]

Victory Against Taliban In Afghan Operation ‘In Sight’

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct 27, 2010 - Afghanistan said on Wednesday that a major military operation against the Taliban in their southern heartland was coming to an end, claiming that victory was in sight.

The insurgency is fiercest in the southern province of Kandahar, where thousands of US-led troops and Afghan forces have stepped up operations since the spring in a bid to reclaim the Taliban stronghold.

General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the Afghan defence ministry spokesman, said that the assault was set to be wrapped up "in weeks."

"The Kandahar operation is in its last stages," Azimi told a news conference in Kabul, saying that the rebels had fled most areas without fighting.

Asked whether the Taliban were defeated in the area, he said: "Well, when an area is cleaned of the enemy, it means they're defeated."

He refused to give details, saying a full report of the operation including casualties will be released at the end of the offensive.

The Taliban said earlier this month on its website that military operations against them in the south have had little impact on their capabilities.

The insurgency is now at its most lethal, killing at least 603 foreign troops so far this year and thousands of Afghan civilians since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down their harsh Islamist regime.

More than 150,000 international forces are stationed in the troubled nation, where US President Barack Obama has said he wants to start drawing down American forces next July.

Local elders who spoke to AFP about the Kandahar operation expressed fears that the Taliban could quickly infiltrate again.

"This (situation) may not last long," said Haji Agha Lalai, a member of the Kandahar provincial council.

"We had a similar operation three years ago: the operation started, Taliban fled the areas and after the troops left, the Taliban came back."

"There are no Taliban, that is true... There are Afghan and international forces around and we can travel to various districts," said Haji Fazul Ahmad, a tribal elder and resident of Zehri district.

"Now what we need are schools, clinics and government rule. The rule of law is key to success."

Citing US military and intelligence officials, The Washington Post reported that the US military campaign against the Taliban has failed to destroy the group or pressure its leaders to seek peace.

The intense campaign, including drone strikes and commando attacks, has inflicted some temporary setbacks on the insurgency, the sources told the newspaper, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But an unnamed senior Defence Department official involved in war assessments was quoted as telling the Post: "The insurgency seems to be maintaining its resilience".

Taliban fighters have consistently shown that they can "re-establish and rejuvenate", sometimes just days after a defeat by US forces, the official said.

 

[Spring Onion]

This is interesting that often its NATO/US that come up with such claims.

Anyway if victories are in sight why the talks?

 

[pkpatriotic]

NATO: True test of Kandahar to come in June
By Anne Flaherty - Associated Press
Thursday, October 28, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) — NATO won't know until June if the security gains being made in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar will hold, a top commander said Thursday, lowering hopes for a quick return on the Obama administration's investment of tens of thousands more troops.

Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the British commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said enemy attacks often decrease as the weather cools and foliage disappears, leaving the insurgents fewer places to hide. In the spring, many fighters are harvesting poppy and wheat crops, he said.

"I sensed it won't be until June next year that we'll be sure that the advances we've made during the course of the last few months are genuinely successful," Gen. Carter said. He spoke to reporters at the Pentagon from his headquarters at Kandahar Airfield via a video link.

The Obama administration is scheduled to report to Congress in December on progress in the war, following the deployment of tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops. Gen. Carter's comments suggest that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, may say it is too early to tell if stepped-up operations against the Taliban have yielded permanent gains.

Late last year, President Obama ordered an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan with the goal of driving out the Taliban once and for all. Mr. Obama also promised that troops would start coming home next July.

Regaining control of the Kandahar region — where the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were planned — was considered crucial to meeting Mr. Obama's time line.

But the outcome remains far from certain. Gen. Carter and other military officials say that significant challenges lie ahead, including the need to persuade locals to shun the Taliban and sign up for government service.

The inability to prop up an effective district government has stalled progress in nearby Marjah, a cluster of farming hamlets in southern Afghanistan where firefights continue some eight months after a major NATO-led offensive there.

Gen. Carter said similar challenges exist in Kandahar.

"What's needed are Afghans to step up to the plate, to be the leaders at district levels and in other positions in the police force and, of course, also in the army," Gen. Carter said of Kandahar.

Gen. Carter said there are signs of recent progress in Kandahar, which could give Afghan's leaders the time they need to set up government institutions in the southern region.

Afghan civilians are moving more freely on highways and traveling into district centers, Gen. Carter said, rather than hiding in their homes. Residents celebrated late into the evening at the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, he said, evidence that they feel more secure.

And for the first time, 10 tons of pomegranates were exported recently out of Kandahar Airfield, he said.

"There's a lot of distance to go, and it is still possible for the insurgency to intimidate and to assassinate a number of the key leaders, and also to mount the odd spectacular from time to time," Gen. Carter said.

"But I suspect if you wandered around the streets of Kandahar now," it would be evident that "the man in the street is in a better place than he was three or four months ago," he added.