Afghan politicians are exaggerating Taliban wins, U.S. general says
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Version 0 of 1. The new top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Thursday that the Afghan military continues to hold its own against the Taliban insurgency, but Afghan military officials are afraid to describe their own successes and have to deal with Afghan politicians who exaggerate Taliban battlefield wins. The comments by Army Gen. John Campbell came amid a wave of violence by insurgents in recent days, and after the new Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, agreed to a bilateral security agreement that will keep a U.S. military force of about 9,800 in Afghanistan after 2014. Campbell, speaking in a video conference call with reporters at the Pentagon, said the Taliban recently increased activity in Ghazi province’s Ajristan district, in Afghanistan’s east, that drew Afghan media attention. Campbell said that all of the operational reports he has received said that about six Afghan troops and 12 civilians killed — which was “nothing… like what the local media has provided here.” The criticism came two days after Campbell’s International Security Assistance Force released a statement disputing reporting out of Ghazi. Media there reported that the Taliban had launched a large-scale assault with hundreds of fighters. “There’s no terrain down there … the Afghans do not control,” Campbell said. “And there are some very exaggerated reports. I… feel very confident that Ajristan [and that] western part of Ghazni is not an issue.” In Helmand province, in Afghanistan’s south, the Taliban continue to contest areas around Sangin district, which was an insurgent stronghold when Marines assaulted it in 2010 and the site of hundreds of U.S. casualties in the following years. There is now a “pretty substantial fight” between the Taliban and Afghan forces there, but Afghan commandos, police and members of the Afghan Army’s 215th Corps will likely win the battle, Campbell said. “There are casualties on both sides, but I think here in the next 24 to 48 hours, what you’ll see in Helmand is that the Taliban do not own any of the ground that they’ve tried to get,” Campbell said. Afghan police and military commanders have generally been reticent to describe battlefield successes to the public, but the general wants them to do so. The Taliban has been winning the information war, he said, and more needs to be done to combat that. Campbell said that Ghazi and his former rival Abdullah Abdullah, now chief executive in a new government, have shown themselves to be pro-military so far. Ghani “will probably change some of the directives that were out there that may have inhibited the military,” Campbell said. |