MARJA AND
town of Marja, Western commanders reported the first serious setback of
the 2-day-old offensive: the deaths of a dozen Afghan civilians in an
errant rocket strike.
U.S. Army Gen.
episode of civilian casualties since the start of fighting in Nad Ali,
the district in central Helmand province where Marja lies.
Civilian casualties are among the most contentious
issues between Karzai and his Western allies. A day earlier, as the
assault on Marja began, Karzai had demanded “absolute caution” on the
part of coalition troops to avoid hurting or killing noncombatants.
Before the start of fighting, U.S. commanders had
said repeatedly that civilian safety was their top priority. NATO’s
International Security Assistance Force said it was immediately
suspending use of the weapons system used in the deadly strike.
The military said in a statement that coalition
troops were aiming at a compound from which insurgents were firing on
Western and Afghan forces, but the two rockets missed their target by
about 300 yards, killing the 12 civilians.
The incident cast a pall over what military
officials had been describing as a successful start to the offensive,
which is among the largest battles of the war to date and the biggest
joint operation by Western and Afghan troops. Marines on Sunday
continued their push into the 85,000-resident community, coming under
sporadic but sometimes intense fire from insurgent holdouts.
Afghan officials said 27 insurgents had been killed
so far in the offensive that began before dawn Saturday. NATO reported
the death of a Western service member in an explosion Sunday in
southern
but did not disclose the nationality involved or say whether the
fatality came in the course of the assault on Marja. A Marine and a
British soldier were killed Saturday.
The offensive marks the first major military
confrontation since the start of a 30,000-strong U.S. troop buildup
ordered late last year by
On the second full day of fighting, the Taliban and
other insurgent foot soldiers remained a shadowy enemy: Western
commanders still do not have a solid estimate of how many Islamist
militants remain in the farming town and its environs, which for years
had served as a Taliban sanctuary.
Estimates prior to the assault ranged from 400 to
around 1,000 Taliban and other fighters in the town. Perhaps 150 of
those were believed to be “hard-core” militants, including Central
Asian fighters with possible links to al-Qaida who would likely fight
to the death rather than slip away.
Some Taliban fled before the battle. The Marines had
widely publicized their plans to take the town in hopes of driving off
less committed fighters and thus limiting close-quarters combat that
could end up harming civilians.
In keeping with their usual practice, insurgents
avoided massing for a confrontation, instead staging scattered
hit-and-run attacks. Even the Marines’ commander, Brig. Gen.
For the advancing Marines, it was a rough, dirty
slog — and a slow one. Companies of U.S. and Afghan troops moved
through the streets, carefully detonating improvised explosive devices,
or IEDs, in their path. Plumes of dusty smoke arose from the blast
sites. Commanders acknowledge such “clearing” could go on for days or
weeks.
The town and its outskirts are thickly sown with
homemade bombs, which are the insurgents’ weapon of choice against much
better-armed coalition troops. Advancing forces have uncovered some
major caches of bomb-making components, including detonation cords and
hundreds of pounds of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural chemical
recently banned by Afghan authorities because it was being so widely
used as an ingredient in IEDs.
In Marja’s center, coalition forces on Sunday laid
claim to more key sites, including strategically located walled
compounds. Marines guarding one such makeshift outpost came under
insurgent fire when Afghan troops inside the compound raised their
national flag, the Reuters news agency reported.
A total of about 15,000 U.S., British, Afghan and
other coalition troops — some of them combat units, others providing
support — are taking part in the offensive. About half of them are
deployed in and around Marja itself; the remainder are in the
surrounding district. NATO hopes to secure a broad arc of territory to
make it harder for the Taliban to regain a foothold in the area.
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(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
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