Civilians die in Afghan offensive

At least 12 Afghan civilians have been killed during a major military offensive in the south of the country, the Nato-led military force said.

The victims died after a rocket hit their house on Sunday, the second day of Operation Moshtarak, which aims to wrest control of the town of Marjah and neighbouring areas in Helmand province from the Taliban.

"Two rockets from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System [HIMARS] launched at insurgents firing upon Afghan and Isaf forces impacted approximately 300 metres off their intended target, killing 12 civilians in Nad Ali district," the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said in a statement.

The statement said that the intended target of the rocket had been a Taliban compound from which fighters had shot and injured one Nato and one Afghan soldier.

The Nato-led force said that General Stanley McChrystal, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, had apologised to Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, over the deaths.

'Regrettable' deaths

Earlier, Karzai ordered an investigation into the incident near Marjah, which came after he had warned foreign forces to take all measures to protect civilians.

The Isaf statement quoted McChrystal as saying: "The current operation in central Helmand is aimed at restoring security and stability to this vital area of Afghanistan.

"It's regrettable that in the course of our joint efforts, innocent lives were lost.

"We extend our heartfelt sympathies and will ensure we do all we can to avoid future incidents," he said.

(change the record already)

Nato and US officials had earlier hailed the success, so far, of Operation Moshtarak, meaning "together" in the local Dari language.

At least 27 fighters were reported to have been killed during the first day of fighting, while Nato said it had uncovered bomb-making materials and a weapons cache.

However, there will be concerns about the effect that civilian casualties will have on the long-term aim of keeping Marjah, a town of about 80,000 people in the central Helmand River valley, out of the hands of the Taliban and drug traffickers.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from the capital Kabul, said that a high death toll could cause the whole operation to "backfire".

"To win this war you are going to need the support of the people," she said.

"The Afghan government is facing a real test. It has to make good on promises of security and services in central Helmand."

'Winning trust'

Ali Ahmed Jalali, the former interior minister of Afghanistan, told Al Jazeera: "Marjah is a microcosm of the approach adopted by the international forces to clear an area and rebuild it and win the trust of the population.

"If the Marjah operations does lead to better stability in the area and if that is done properly, that will send a message to other parts of the country – but Marjah is only one of 385 districts in the country," he said.

At least 15,000 US, British and Afghan soldiers have been involved in operations around Marjah.

James Jones, the US president's senior security adviser, said in Washington that the offensive was "going very well".

"It's an important moment in time because this is the first time we put together all of the elements of the president's new strategy."

But US military officials acknowledged that it could take weeks to secure Marjah and the surrounding areas.

"That doesn't necessarily mean an intense gun battle, but it probably will be 30 days of clearing," Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said.

The Afghan and foreign troops have met only sporadic resistance from Taliban fighters, but have been targeted with improvised explosive devices and booby-traps.

Source: al-Jazeerah

what are we doing out there... again??

Abu ratshit lied:

Quote:


Nope they took great care to warn the civilians there over some time that they would attack, thousands have left.

What I call murder is Taliban arseholes killing a little girl because she went to the new school! Pricks also killed her teacher. That is murder!

Nah the story's changed, it was the right target now, they meant to slaughter all the kids inside that house.

I'm serious go read the news.

They have put the weapons system back into use and say it wasn't an accident at all but was done on purpose.

Insurgents put up resistance in Taliban town
AP

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Taliban Commander Talking to Interrogators Play Video FOX News  – Taliban Commander Talking to Interrogators


MARJAH, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines pummeled insurgents with mortars, sniper fire and missiles as fighting intensified Thursday in two areas of the Taliban southern stronghold of Marjah, where U.S. and Afghan forces are facing stubborn resistance in an operation now in its sixth day.

Marines traded machine-gun fire after coming under attack by insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades. One Marine company attacked Taliban positions surrounding them at dawn.

Marines and Afghan troops continued to battle "stiff resistance" in different parts of town, a Marine spokesman said Thursday

"We're seeing more fortified positions. They're standing their ground, essentially," Lt. Josh Diddams said. "You don't know where you're going to get a little pop up of insurgents who are going to stay and fight."

The fighting in Marjah has followed a similar pattern over the past few days: relatively light in the morning with sniper fire intensifying through midday before subsiding at nightfall.

But there were also pockets of calm. Families trickled back and shops reopened in a northern part of town as a small measure of normalcy returned to parts of Marjah that are under Afghan and NATO control.

Their donkeys laden down with their belongings, several families could be seen coming back to their homes in a sign that some civilians believed the fighting is over in zones secured by NATO troops.

Several storekeepers reopened their shops in the bullet-riddled northern bazaar in the northern part of town, as customers lined up to buy goods for the first time in nearly a week.

This is the biggest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, and a test of President Barack Obama's strategy for reversing the rise of the Taliban while protecting civilians.

Five NATO service members and one Afghan soldier have been killed since the attack on Marjah, the hub of the Taliban's southern logistics and drug-smuggling network, began Saturday. About 40 insurgents have been killed, Helmand Gov. Gulab Mangal said.

NATO had previously reported six deaths, but said Thursday that one death had mistakenly been reported twice. Once the town of 80,000 people is secure, NATO plans to rush in civil administrators to revive schools, health clinics and electricity in hopes of winning public support to discourage the Taliban from returning.

But in a sign of the difficulty that NATO faces in trying to reverse the rise of militants, eight members of the Afghan National Police on Wednesday night defected to the Taliban, a police official said Thursday

Eight policemen in Wardak province's Chak district abandoned their posts and joined with Taliban militants in the area late Wednesday, said Mirza Khan, deputy provincial police chief. Khan said one of the policemen had previous ties with the Taliban. The incident is under investigation.

A Taliban spokesman called The Associated Press to confirm the defection.

"These policemen came on their own and told us they want to join with the Taliban," Zabiullah Mujahid said. "Now they are with us."

He said they came with their weapons and ammunition. Mujahid said more than 20 police switched over, but the group commonly gives inflated numbers.

As Marines and Afghan soldiers press their offensive in Marjah, they have been forced to hold their fire because insurgents are shooting from inside or next to mud-walled compounds where civilians are present — and restraint slows their advance.

Brig. Gen. Mohiudin Ghori, the brigade commander of Afghan troops in Marjah, said in some cases women and children may have been ordered to stand on a roof or in a window of buildings where Taliban fighters are shooting.

NATO has confirmed 15 civilian deaths in the operation. Afghan rights groups say at least 19 have died.

___

Faiez reported from Helmand province. Associated Press writers Tini Tran and Heidi Vogt in Kabul contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100218/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

abu_rashid wrote on Feb 18^th, 2010 at 9:54pm:



Whichever way Christianity has worked out that paradox, it has nothing to do with Islamic understandings of it. To you, everything is Allah's will (insh'allah) and there is no free will. So you don't even conceive of it as a paradox.
Yet your mind cannot actually operate like that, so you will blame people (especially westerners) as if you believed that they have free will. The syntax of your mind commits apostasy with every thought concerning human agency.



Cognitive dissonance, thy name is Islam.

Are you saying that the crusading western hordes in Afghanistan are slaughtering innocent Muslim civilians against Allah's will? That Allah does not author their every act? Not just foresee but expressly permit?