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Hundreds of villagers living in a Taliban-controled area of southern Afghanistan are leaving before a major NATO-led offensive gets under way. It is expected to be one of the largest counter-insurgency operations since the Afghan conflict began in 2001. The operation to clear insurgents from the southern town of Marjah, in Helmand province, is expected to begin soon. The BBC’s Frank Gardner is 90 miles east of Marjah in Kandahar.
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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World. The battle for the Afghan town of Marjah has not yet begun, but just about everyone, NATO forces, Taliban militants and Afghan civilians seems to know what’s coming. NATO is planning an offensive in the southern Afghan town. Taliban fighters say they are digging in for a fight and hundreds of civilians are fleeing. The stakes are high. Marjah is the biggest community in Southern Afghanistan under insurgent control. The BBC’s Frank Gardner is 90 miles east of Marjah in Kandahar. He’s embedded with the command center for the operation in southern Afghanistan. He says the generals are deliberately publicizing what’s coming.
FRANK GARDNER: What they want to do is minimize civilian casualties, so in a way they’ve conducted a kind of information operation before they start the shooting war, the shooting part of the battle. They’ve prepared a load of leaflets; in fact I’ve got one of them in front of me here. “It says [phonetic] mustarak, the combined force and the people will defeat the insurgents and bring a better life. Where will you stand? Help us. Report enemy activity on the following number.” So these are being prepared to be air dropped. That’s coupled with radio messages and what they’re trying to do, essentially, is to split the Taliban away from the local population to convince the locals that in the argument over who to side with, the Taliban or the government, they’re better off being with the Afghan government. It’s a big ask because a lot of these operations have resulted in a lot of destruction of civilian property and also they have left a security vacuum afterwards because NATO, up until now, has not had the troops to be able to hold the ground. So this time, what they’re saying is they’re going to have the troops; more particularly they’re going to bring in Afghan policemen and others to guarantee security.
WERMAN: So presumably those pamphlets part of the hearts and minds war. What is the goal of, if it should come to it, of a shooting war in this operation?
GARDNER: Well they’re hoping not to have a shooting war. I think realistically they know that the hard core will probably oppose them because they are that they’re going into is one that has been known as opium central. It’s a major opium production area where a lot of money is at stake. I don’t think the Taliban are going to relinquish, and indeed other insurgents and drug lords are not going to be happy to relinquish this area easily. It’s perfectly possible that the Taliban will have used this period to sew a crust of IED’s, of Improvised Explosive Devices, down all the routes that they would expect troops to advance to this area. But the goal is to have minimum casualties and maximum security. To that end what they’ve done is to essentially try and plan this operation backwards so that they’re looking at the political situation a few months or weeks down the line. They’re bringing in extra police and they’ve trained up, or sort of worked up a government in waiting, as it were, to move in to this area.
WERMAN: How many troops are involved in this one and how does it compare with other operations like this in the recent past?
GARDNER: We’re gold 15,000 troops all together are taking part in this. The lion’s share will be American. There will be several thousand Afghan troops. There will be a few thousand British troops and there will be much smaller numbers of others as well.
WERMAN: And Frank, a final question before we let you go, the name Operation Mustarak, what does that mean?
GARDNER: It means joint or together or shared. It’s actually an Arabic word, but it’s the same in Dari and the whole emphasis on this is saying that this is a joint Afghan coalition operation where the Afghan commanders, who are now getting quite a lot of battle experience, have taken part in the planning. They were the ones who presented the plan to President Karzai. He was happy with what they presented to him. So the political will, I think, is there at the moment, but let’s see if it remains there.
WERMAN: Certainly more culturally appropriate name than Operation Cobra’s anger.
GARDNER: Yes. Although beneath all the good intentions of good civil government and so on, make no mistake there is an absolutely awesome amount of fire power being amassed for this should the Taliban resist.
WERMAN: The BBC’s Frank Gardner will leave it there. You’re in southern Afghanistan at the command center for Operation Mustarak. Thanks very much for your time.
GARDNER: You’re welcome.
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