Pubdate: Mon, 12 Mar 2007
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact:  http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Paul Wiseman

NATO ENTERS AFGHAN DRUG REGION

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Thousands of NATO troops have moved into 
Afghanistan's biggest opium-growing region to repel an expected 
springtime counterattack by a resurgent Taliban.

The offensive in Helmand province seeks to cut off drug money that is 
a major source of funding for the Islamic rebel militia. Analysts say 
the NATO force will be challenged by comparatively low troop levels 
and its inability to chase Taliban fighters as they slip in and out 
of neighboring Pakistan.

"The Taliban is based in Pakistan," says James Dobbins, a former U.S. 
envoy to Afghanistan. "No Afghan-based operation can do it lasting 
damage. The best we can do is set them back on their heels."

About 4,500 NATO troops -- including soldiers from the USA, Canada 
and Great Britain -- pushed into northern Helmand province last week. 
One thousand troops from the Afghan national army joined them, 
fanning out to secure sensitive targets before mountain snows melt 
and allow rebel forces greater movement.

"We're pre-empting the Taliban's so-called spring offensive," says 
Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, a NATO spokesman.

NATO said Sunday night that two British soldiers have been killed in combat.

A NATO priority is to create a 6-mile security buffer around the 
Kajaki hydroelectric dam. Taliban fighters have repeatedly fired guns 
and rockets at dam workers, preventing the delivery of a turbine 
engine needed to get the plant running at full capacity. As a result, 
1.7 million people across southern Afghanistan do not have reliable power.

The troops will try to win over tribal elders by convincing them 
their communities will get roads, schools, clinics and other projects 
once the Taliban threat is gone. U.S. Army Col. Tom Collins said 
Sunday that 190 local aid projects, including bridges, immunization 
clinics and sanitation systems, "are on hold because of extremist 
activity in the area."

Marsh said NATO troops have made a painstaking effort to avoid 
causing civilian casualties. They called off an attack Thursday when 
Taliban fighters fled into a residential area.

Helmand province is the world's biggest producer of opium. According 
to the United Nations, Taliban fighters protect poppy farmers from 
Afghan eradication efforts in return for money, generating tens of 
millions of dollars for the insurgency every year.

NATO expects the Taliban will not let one of its bases of power slip 
away without a fight. As the offensive began last week, the Taliban 
commander, Mullah Abdul Qassim, told the Associated Press that the 
insurgents could call on 4,000 fighters in northern Helmand and 4,000 
to 5,000 elsewhere in the province.

A top Taliban military commander, Mullah Dadullah, claimed in an 
Al-Jazeera TV interview last month that a spring offensive was 
"imminent." He said fighters were hidden in tunnels and elsewhere in 
preparation for the assault.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair pleaded with NATO nations to send 
more troops to Afghanistan at a European Union summit last week, but 
he came up empty-handed. Several countries restrict their troops in 
Afghanistan from operating in certain combat situations.

"What is taken from the Taliban is often lost because it can't be 
held long enough to bring in reconstruction," says Ahmed Rashid, a 
Pakistani journalist and author of Taliban. "There has been and 
remains a persistent shortage of (Afghan and NATO) troops ... to 
occupy the area that is seized."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman