Aerial drones fired missiles that killed 16 insurgents in separate
strikes in volatile Helmand province, Western military officials said
Tuesday, signaling what could be a change in tactics against Taliban
fighters planting roadside bombs or laying ambushes in advance of an
expected offensive by
Drones have been extensively used by
tribal areas, but in the Afghan conflict, they have been mainly
employed for surveillance purposes and used only occasionally for
“pinpoint” strikes against known Taliban commanders.
In
the relentless campaign of drone strikes, mainly carried out by the
CIA, has prompted furious protests against what Pakistani authorities
say have been hundreds of ancillary civilian deaths. The CIA officers
killed in a
In advance of a new allied troop buildup in
the Western military has been struggling to quell the threat of IEDs,
or improvised explosive devices, which now account for most troop
fatalities and injuries, and were a major factor in the doubling of the
U.S. military death toll in
The IED toll has been especially punishing in the
south, where most of the 30,000 American reinforcements set to arrive
this year will be deployed.
In strikes that occurred hours apart Monday, a drone
fired a Hellfire missile after a group of men was monitored moving
ammunition near a suspected Taliban safe house in Helmand’s Now Zad
district, the Western military said. Thirteen insurgents were killed,
ISAF said in a statement.
A similar strike took place in the Nad Ali district
of Helmand, where three insurgents were killed by another Hellfire
missile after they “took up previously used firing positions.”
“We’re using everything we’ve got” to combat IED emplacement, said U.S. Army Col.
International Security Assistance Force, although he declined to
characterize Monday’s two drone attacks as linked to the planned troop
buildup or the expected Marines offensive.
The Marines, who seized a large swath of the Helmand
river valley over the summer, have signaled their intent to launch
another offensive targeting the town of Marja, a significant
narcotics-trafficking hub where many insurgents have taken shelter from
fighting elsewhere in the province.
Despite concerted American efforts in recent months
to build trust in dealings with local authorities in Helmand, many
villagers remain deeply suspicious of foreign forces. That makes it
much harder for troops to gather intelligence from locals about
insurgent activities, including the planting of IEDs.
In Helmand’s Garmsir district, villagers rioted
Tuesday over allegations that Western troops desecrated a Koran, the
Muslim holy book, in an earlier raid. The confrontation turned lethal
when shots were fired at a coalition base, striking an Afghan official,
and Western forces fired back, killing a man they said was the shooter.
News agencies quoted provincial officials as saying
up to six other Afghans had been killed in an exchange of fire, but
military officials said the only death was that of the alleged sniper.
U.S. forces also denied that any desecration had
taken place during a raid a day earlier, conducted jointly with Afghan
forces, targeting the Taliban. American officials accuse the Taliban of
spreading rumors about foreign troops’ mishandling of the Koran — a
highly sensitive subject in religiously conservative areas like Helmand
— to incite unrest.
“While denying these allegations, we take them very
seriously and support a combined investigation with local Afghan
authorities,” U.S. Maj. Gen.
In the capital,
meanwhile, American officials who oversee the spending of billions of
dollars in reconstruction aid told journalists that more than three
dozen cases involving graft and malfeasance were under criminal
investigation.
President
intense pressure to clean up corruption in his government, often
responds to international demands for reforms by alleging that Western
aid efforts are honeycombed with corruption as well.
The American disclosures appeared meant to assure
Karzai and the Afghan public that wrongdoing on the international side
was not being ignored.
Corruption affecting the disbursement of aid money is expected to be a topic at a conference in
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
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