[NYTr] Afghanistan: Military intensifies effort to reclaim town from Taliban

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via USA Today - Oct 28, 2007
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-10-28-musaqusa_N.htm?csp=34

Military intensifies effort to reclaim town from Taliban

By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan — Days after Taliban fighters overran Musa Qala in
February a U.S. commander pledged that Western troops would take it
back. Nine months later, the town is still Taliban territory, a symbol
of the West's struggles to control the poppy-growing south.

But a string of recent battles, won overwhelmingly by American Special
Forces, signal a renewed U.S. interest in the symbolic Taliban
stronghold, and an Afghan army commander on Sunday said talks are being
held with Musa Qala's tribal leaders to help win back the town from the
Arab, Chechen and Uzbek fighters who roam its streets.

U.S. Special Forces soldiers accompanied by Afghan troops killed about
80 Taliban fighters during a six-hour battle outside Musa Qala on
Saturday, the latest in a series of increasingly bloody engagements in
the region. Special Forces troops have killed more than 250 militants
around Musa Qala over the last 60 days, according to coalition
statements.

"Musa Qala is part of the overall concept here, denying the Taliban the
ability to control northern Helmand," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a
spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. "Our goal is to stop them from
accomplishing that."

"We're in Musa Qala and we're going to stay there. We're going to
continue to do patrols and when we find Taliban, we'll continue to
engage them," he said.

It was only days after the Taliban overran Musa Qala last Feb. 1 that a
U.S. military spokesman, Col. Tom Collins, said NATO and Afghan forces
would take back the town "at a time and place that is most
advantageous."

That time could finally be coming. Saturday's fight in Helmand province
— the world's largest poppy growing region — is at least the fifth
major battle in the area since Sept. 1.

And the top Afghan army commander in Helmand, Brig. Gen. Ghulam
Muhiddin Ghori, revealed for the first time on Sunday that negotiations
are being held with the town's tribal leaders.

"Afghan and coalition forces have surrounded the Musa Qala district
center. We have started negotiations with tribal leaders there to take
over Musa Qala from the Taliban," Ghori told The Associated Press. "The
tribal leaders are also worried about these Taliban because the foreign
fighters — Arabs, Chechens, Baluchs and Uzbeks — they are in Musa Qala."

The foreign fighters are running training camps near Musa Qala to teach
militants how to carry out suicide and roadside bomb attacks, Ghori
said. But he said no big military operations are being carried out to
overtake the town itself because of a fear that many civilians would be
killed.

"That's why we're working through negotiations with tribal leaders," he
said.

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after
British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement
that handed over security responsibilities to Afghan elders. The deal
has been implicitly criticized as a failure by some U.S. commanders in
Afghanistan.

The vast majority of Western forces in Helmand are British, though U.S.
Special Forces troops are also active in the province. A British
military spokesman couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.

Situated in northern Helmand, Musa Qala and the region around it have
been the front line of the bloodiest fighting this year. It is also the
heartland of Afghanistan's illicit opium poppy farms.

Violence in Afghanistan this year has been the deadliest since the 2001
U.S.-led invasion. More than 5,200 people have died this year due to
the insurgency, according to an Associated Press count based on figures
from Afghan and Western officials.

The latest Musa Qala battle began Saturday when Taliban insurgents
attacked a combined U.S. coalition and Afghan patrol with rockets and
gunfire, prompting the combined force to call in attack aircraft,
resulting in "almost seven dozen Taliban fighters killed," the U.S.-led
coalition said.

The coalition said four bombs were dropped on a trench line filled with
fighters, resulting in most of the deaths. It said there were no
immediate reports of civilian casualties.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez,
declined to talk about Musa Qala at a news conference in Kabul on
Sunday. Speaking on a separate topic, he said it could take between 18
months and two years for Afghan forces to be able to conduct major
operations on their own.

Rodriguez said Afghan forces excel at small unit tactics and
coordinating with the Afghan people but still need to improve their
command structure, the use of air power, their logistics support and
medical capabilities. He declined to talk about the fighting in Musa
Qala.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force, meanwhile, said an
investigation into allegations of civilian casualties following an
attack in Wardak province on Oct. 22 found that no civilians had been
killed. A provincial council member at the time said 12 civilians had
been killed, but ISAF said the investigation found that the allegations
were "without merit." 

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.