On the offensive
After Obama’s green light, Afghan forces plan new assault on IS
KABUL, Afghanistan — After two years of heavy casualties, the Afghan military is trying to retake the initiative in the war against militants with a new offensive against the Islamic State group that will see American troops back on the battlefield working closely with Afghan soldiers.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently announced a major assault against fighters loyal to IS, which over the past year captured positions along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan, mainly in Nangarhar province. The goal to uproot IS from Afghanistan has taken on new urgency after a deadly suicide bombing of a protest march Saturday in Kabul that killed at least 80 people.
The Islamic State group’s Aamaq online news agency 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 televised address, 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 U.S. airstrikes diminished, letting the Afghan military take the lead in carrying out the war.
Taliban forces have dominated the battlefield and IS has been building a foothold — and that has meant mounting losses among Afghan troops. Casualty numbers are not officially released, but according to figures provided by 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 percent higher than the same point last year.
In an acknowledgment of the deteriorating security situation, President Barack Obama last month gave a green light to a more assertive role for U.S. troops, though still short of direct combat. With that boost, Afghans are shifting back on the offensive.
The anti-IS operation announced by Ghani — dubbed Shafaq, or “Dawn” in Pashto — will see the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, implementing an aggressive new strategy. U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan are likely to become more frequent as the strategy shifts from using airpower only to defend U.S. and NATO positions to striking in support of Afghan offensives.
Ghani said the operation, expected to start before the end of this month, aims to eliminate IS fighters in Nangarhar. The IS loyalists are believed to be mostly disaffected Taliban fighters, as well as members of Pakistani insurgent groups, likely funded by IS in Iraq and Syria, Karimi said.
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.
Obama’s directives, issued in June, enable the U.S. military to work alongside Afghan forces in the field on offensive missions against insurgents, though still in a non-combat role. Since 2014, their role was confined to battles in which the Taliban directly threatened U.S. and NATO forces. They also allow U.S. involvement when Afghan forces face “strategic defeat,” as they did in the northern city of Kunduz, which fell to the Taliban in September for several weeks and was threatened again in April.