Afghan forces go on the offensive
Kabul plans major push against IS forces after Obama greenlights stronger US support
KABUL: After two years of heavy casualties, the Afghan military is trying to retake the initiative in the war against militants with a new offensive next week against Islamic State group loyalists, an assault that will see American troops back on the battlefield working more closely with Afghan soldiers.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently announced a major assault against fighters loyal to the Islamic State group, who over the past year captured positions along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan, mainly in Nangarhar province.
That goal to uproot IS from Afghanistan has taken on new urgency in the wake of a deadly suicide bombing of a protest march on Saturday in Kabul that killed at least 80 people.
The Islamic State group’s Aamaq online news agency quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, the first IS attack in the Afghan capital and one of the deadliest ever to hit Kabul.
Ghani, in a live televised address after the bombing, told the nation, “I promise you I will take revenge against the culprits.”
The inexperienced Afghan forces have largely stalled in the fight against Islamic militants ever since most international combat troops withdrew in 2014.
American forces that remained shifted to a supporting role and US airstrikes diminished, letting the Afghan military take the lead in carrying out the war.
Taliban forces have dominated the battlefield and the Islamic State group has been building a foothold, and that has meant mounting losses among Afghan troops.
Casualty numbers are not officially released, but according to military officials, at least 5,000 troops were killed in 2014, rising to more than 6,000 last year.
So far in 2016, Afghan troop deaths are 20% higher than the same point last year.
Acknowledging the deteriorating security situation, President Barack Obama last month gave a green light to a more assertive role for US troops, though still short of direct combat. With that boost, Afghans are shifting back on the offensive.
The upcoming antiIS operation announced by Ghani, dubbed Shafaq, or “Dawn” in Pashto, will see the head of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen John Nicholson, implementing an aggressive new strategy.
US airstrikes on Afghanistan are likely to become more frequent as the strategy shifts from using air power only to defend US and NATO positions to striking in support of Afghan offensives.
Nangarhar is one of Afghanistan’s most economically important provinces, a major producer of agricultural goods and a thoroughfare for much of the country’s exports to Pakistan and beyond.
“It is like a second capital,” Afghan Army Gen Shir Mohammad Karimi, the former general staff chief of operations, said of the provincial capital Jalalabad, 125km east of Kabul.
“It is a gateway to Kabul,” he said. “If Nangarhar falls, Kabul will become a battleground every day.”
Ghani has said the operation, expected to start before the month’s end, aims to eliminate IS fighters in Nangarhar, where they have been active mainly in the Shinwar, Kot and Achin districts. — AP
KABUL: In his blue cap and green Scouts shirt, 16-year-old Aref Qasemi sits in a room in Kabul with dozens of other boys and girls, his eyes barely making it over the shoulders of his fellow Scouts.
Under the dim lights they at first appear like any other giggling Scout troop. Then the subject of the bright images projected on the wall sinks in: mines, of different shapes and sizes, and other pieces of unexploded ordnance.
Aref and his friends are not learning how to kayak or build a campfire, the usual things learned by scouts in other countries, but how to identify and avoid these deadly, brutal weapons.
Millions of mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other pieces of ordnance are scattered across Afghanistan, the legacy of more than three decades of war.
They kill and maim dozens of people each month, according to UN data -- including, disproportionately, curious children at play.
“I once witnessed two of my friends killed when they picked up a piece of (unexploded ordnance), thinking it was a piece of metal they could sell,” Aref says.
“Learning how to identify and deal with mines is very important. These lessons might one day save my and my family’s life.”
Scouting has a long and proud history in Afghanistan, where it was first initiated in 1931, says training commissioner Gul Ahmad Mustafa.
Things however fell apart during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, followed by civil war and Taliban rule, when traditional scouting was banned.
But in 2010 the international aid organisation PARSA, which works to help children and women in Afghanistan, began attempts to revive the movement, training troops of boys and girls first in remote Ghor province and in orphanages in Kabul.
Today more than 400 leaders have been trained and some 2,000 Scouts are active in 13 out of 34 provinces, according to Mohammad Tamim Hamkar, the Afghan programme’s manager.
Like fellow Scouts worldwide, they play games, learn first aid and field crafts -- but, lacking funds and facing spiralling violence and insecurity, adventures such as camping and hiking are all but impossible.
At times the children are associated with police, a dangerous perception in a country where law enforcement -- accused of many rights abuses and widely distrusted -- are regularly targeted by insurgents.
“While scouting can thrive when supported by people, some here are taking our boys for police, thinking we are part of the interior ministry,” Hamkar said.
There are rays of light too, however. In a nation plagued by decades of violence and rampant drug use, scouting gives some young people a path.
The perception of Scouts in the country is slowly improving, Hamkar says.
“We have been having TV shows on the importance of scouting, to change the wrong impression about scouting.”
It may yet be years before the Afghan scouting programme is once again recognised internationally, organisers admit.
“But we are determined. Even if it requires the patience of the Prophet Ayoub (Job), we will do it. We will get there.”, he adds.