Prominent Afghan Officials Are Killed by Taliban in 3 Attacks in South
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Version 0 of 1. KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents killed three prominent local government officials and at least nine other people in three separate attacks in southern Afghanistan on Saturday. The attacks came as the insurgents continued to hold the strategic district of Musa Qala in Helmand Province, which fell to them on Wednesday, in the face of what witnesses described as an intense bombardment by American warplanes. The tempo of Taliban attacks in the south, and on so many different fronts, was worrisome in itself, even as the insurgents continued to press government forces on new fronts they had opened in northern Afghanistan in recent months, in Badakhshan, Faryab and Kunduz Provinces. In the past four days, at least 50 government soldiers, police officers, militiamen and officials are known to have been killed throughout the country. The attacks in the south have already drawn American forces deeper into the conflict than at any point since their combat role officially ended Dec. 31. As the Musa Qala District fell on Wednesday, members of a United States Air Force Special Tactics Squadron were rushed into Camp Bastion, recently renamed Camp Antonik, the military headquarters of Helmand Province. American military officials said the soldiers deployed there — believed to number 90 Special Operations troops — were part of the NATO and American-led coalition’s noncombat, “train, advise and assist” mission. On their first night, however, as they were returning from a late night operation to the base, now run by Afghans, they were challenged by Afghan guards. Two of them were killed in the ensuing firefight. The nature of the late-night operation was unclear. Afghan officials said it was a case of mistaken identity, and Afghan forces have been nervous after attacks by insurgents dressed in the uniforms of the Afghan military and the police and even the American military. The Pentagon identified the two dead Americans as Capt. Matthew D. Roland, 27, of Lexington, Ky., and Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31, of Pensacola, Fla., both members of the Air Force’s Special Tactics squadrons. Such squadrons contain Special Operations troops, commonly employed on close air-support missions, where ground controllers help direct airstrikes. Their deaths raise to five the number of American soldiers killed in the Afghan conflict this year. At least six American contractors have been killed as well. While the train, advise and assist mission is supposed to preclude combat operations, it does allow for American troops to conduct counterterrorism missions, such as against Al Qaeda, and to provide force protection in emergencies. The insurgents in Musa Qala are entirely Taliban forces. “The coalition is now providing air support, and both Afghan and coalition forces are carrying out aerial bombardment and targeting Musa Qala District, and soon we will conduct ground operations to clear up the area,” said Mohammad Rasoul Zazai, the spokesman for the Afghan National Army’s 215th Corps in Helmand. He said that 50 Taliban fighters had been killed in the bombardment so far, but added that the most intense strikes were yet to come. “It is important to note whenever the U.S. conducts airstrikes, a U.S. JTAC must be on the ground directing the strike to ensure they are conducted within our rules of engagement,” said Col. Brian Tribus, an American military spokesman. A JTAC is a joint terminal attack controller, a soldier who guides airstrikes from the ground. Afghan security officials and residents of Musa Qala described several days of intense bombing of Taliban positions in the district, a strategic crossroads that was long held at great cost by American Marines and British Royal Marines. The bombing, which continued through Saturday, had so far not dislodged the insurgents from the district government center, and they had also besieged two Afghan National Army bases on the outskirts of the district center. Afghan helicopter gunships were defending those bases, believed to have about 100 soldiers each, from Taliban attackers. In the Taliban takeover of the district, six Afghan police officers and soldiers were killed and 20 were wounded, with the Musa Qala police chief among the wounded, said Bashir Ahmad Shakir, head of the security committee for Helmand Province. “I am blaming the Afghan security forces for having no coordination among themselves,” Mr. Shakir said. “We have been asking and pleading to the authorities that for God’s sake, save the districts and make a plan.” Mohammad Hashim Alokozai, a member of Parliament from Helmand Province, said that only increased involvement of American forces could save Musa Qala. “I am sure without their help the Afghan government will not be able to recapture the district,” he said. “Close coordination with foreign forces is a must.” On Thursday, commanders of the 215th Corps met at Camp Bastion with American military leaders and officials from Kabul, according to Afghans at the camp, to develop a strategy to retake Musa Qala. Afghan special forces were being deployed to help, along with the stepped-up American airstrikes, officials there said. Western diplomats and military officials have said the American military has been stretching the rules of its counterterrorism mission to allow for Special Operations troops to enter the fight against Taliban forces, even where no coalition forces are directly threatened, a posture that seems to go far beyond what American officials have publicly said American troops would be allowed to do after the combat mission ended in 2014. Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, the three attacks on Saturday together killed at least 12 people, according to Afghan officials. In Ghazni Province, Taliban insurgents attacked a remote checkpoint of the Afghan Local Police in the Andar District at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, killing six police officers, including the commander, a prominent leader known only as Abdullah, according to a member of the provincial council, Amanullah Kamrani. In Oruzgan Province, on the highway between the provincial capital, Tarinkot, and the city of Kandahar, about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the Taliban ambushed a government convoy escorting the provincial security chief, Rahimullah Khan, and the head of the Shura Council, Maulvi Lal Mohammad. Maulvi Mohammad was killed, along with a tribal elder and their driver, but Mr. Khan escaped, said Dust Mohammad Nayaab, the spokesman for the provincial government. In the Chora District of Oruzgan, a bomb was set off that killed the deputy district police chief, Amir Mohammad, and two bodyguards, Mr. Nayaab said. On Tuesday in Oruzgan, 10 members of the Afghan Local Police were killed in a Taliban attack, which also took the lives of nine civilians, according to Afghan official reports. |