[R-G] Afghan civilians suffer in battle for their security

[Anthony Fenton]

Afghan civilians suffer in battle for their security

Tom Hyland
November 25, 2007
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/afghan-civilians-suffer-in- 
battle-for-security/2007/11/24/1195753357377.html

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes to escape the  
fighting in southern Afghanistan, where Australian and Dutch forces  
are claiming early success in what has been Australia's most costly  
operation in the conflict.

The risk to civilians was highlighted by Friday's clash that claimed  
the life of Private Luke Worsley, the third Australian be killed in  
Afghanistan since last month.

Three civilians - two women and a child - also were killed when  
Australian troops attacked what the Australian Defence Force said was  
a Taliban bomb-making compound.

The ADF said it was impossible to say if they were killed by Taliban  
or Australian fire.

On Friday Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston said that, despite the  
loss of Private Worsley, the outcome of the fight was "very good from  
our point of view" because of the number of Taliban killed and captured.

Claims of success in the clash, and the wider operation it was linked  
to, hinge on the ability of Afghan Government forces to stabilise  
areas won by foreign troops, and allow internal refugees to return home.

The numbers of displaced people is growing daily, according to an  
expert with US think tank the Brookings Institution, Khalid Koster.

He said the official figure of 129,000 massively understated the  
problem. It did not include at least 20,000 families - about 100,000  
people - forced to flee their homes in southern Afghanistan in recent  
months.

A report last week by IRIN, a UN-backed news service, said about  
80,000 people had been displaced this year in three southern  
provinces, including Oruzgan, where the Australians are based.

Trying to restore security to a country one third of which the UN  
rates as "extremely risky" has been a key aim of the operation in  
which Australian troops have been involved for the past month.

Operation Spin Ghar (White Mountain) is the largest coalition  
operation ever staged in Oruzgan.

Launched on October 25 by Australian, Dutch, British, US and Afghan  
forces, it aims to clear insurgents from the Baluchi Valley, a key  
Taliban supply and infiltration route.

SAS Sergeant Matthew Locke was shot dead on the first day of the  
operation. Eight days later Sergeant Michael Lyddiard was badly  
wounded when a roadside bomb he was trying to defuse exploded.

Two weeks before the operation began, Trooper David Pearce was killed  
when his armoured vehicle hit a landmine.

Friday's attack was not part of Operation Spin Ghar, but it was based  
on intelligence collected during it. The main Australian task in the  
operation has been to build three security posts for Afghan  
Government forces at the northern end of the valley.

The ADF has given no briefings on the operation, but spokesman  
Brigadier Andrew Nikolic, speaking before Private Worsley's death,  
told The Sunday Age "good results are coming out of it".

The Dutch Defence Ministry said major parts of the operation were  
complete. Taliban fighters fled before allied troops moved in, the  
operation went according to plan with few civilian casualties, and  
gains were being consolidated, the ministry said.

The Dutch statements stressed the role of Afghan forces in securing  
the area and referred to the fear among civilians that the Taliban  
would return.

The ADF hopes Afghan armed forces, based in new security posts, will  
be able to hinder the Taliban and build confidence among local people.

But analysts question whether they will be able to fill the new  
security space.

The Taliban, funded by a booming opium trade and Middle Eastern  
money, pays its fighters three times what the Afghan army does,  
according to Hekmat Karzai, the head of an Afghan think tank, and  
Julian Lindley-French of the Netherlands Defence Academy.

Writing in The Afghanistan Times, they warned that ordinary Afghans  
saw little sign of progress in the work of the NATO-led International  
Security Assistance Force that includes Australian troops.

They said a "yawning gap" between what NATO regarded as success and  
the reality on the ground "is in danger of becoming an exercise in  
political and bureaucratic self-delusion".

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/ 
2007/11/24/1195753357377.html