Big stakes battle

A new joint Nato-Afghan military offensive, ‘Operation Moshtarak’ — the largest since the operation that ousted the Taliban in 2001 — has been launched in Marjah in Afghanistan’s Helmand district, long-regarded to be home to one of the largest concentrations of Taliban fighters. Thousands of Nato and Afghan soldiers have been poured into the area. The aim of the operation is to rid Marjah of the Taliban and then hand it over to the Afghan police before establishing a civilian administration there. The stakes are high. The operation comes at a critical time — public support in Nato countries for the war in Afghanistan is slipping rapidly and failure to break the back of the Taliban in Marjah or a high Nato casualty rate could trigger renewed calls for troop pullout. Nato advance is likely to be slow as the area is littered with improvised explosive devices.

Even as the offensive is just a few days old, there is good news from across the border in Pakistan. Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is second only to its Taliban chief Mullah Omar, and said to in charge of all long-term strategic military planning for the group, reported to have been captured in Karachi. He is likely to have first-hand knowledge of the network in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Whether his capture facilitates ‘Operation Moshtarak’ depends on how quickly Taliban fighters shift positions and operations to make his knowledge obsolete.

Nato and Afghan sources must tread cautiously. The Taliban will melt away and it will be civilians who will bear the brunt of the operation. But high civilian casualties will defeat the purpose of Moshtarak. On the first day of the operation, a missile struck a house killing a dozen civilians. In another incident, six children were killed in a missile strike. Counter-insurgency operations are always tricky and such strikes are inexcusable. Protecting locals should lie at the heart of the military operations. A strategy based on ‘burning a village to save it’ from insurgents is counterproductive and Nato forces must avoid it at all costs. The aim of ‘Operation Moshtarak’ must not be to only wrest control over territory and free Marjah of the Taliban but to win over the hearts and minds of the people there as well.