Up to 6 000 British, American and Afghan forces fighting Taliban militants holding the strategically important Afghan town of Musa Qala were on Sunday preparing for a final assault in the days to come.
”The operation goes on,” said Lieutenant Colonel Tim Eaton, speaking from Lashkar Gah, the headquarters of the British forces deployed in Helmand, in the violent southern province. ”It is like a game of chess and we are moving the right pieces into the right places so they are where we want them to be when we need them.”
He said the strategy was for the British troops to seal off the town, while the American troops ”kicked down the door” to allow Afghan troops to ”rush through”. The battle is the first major test of the new Nato-trained Afghan army.
A British soldier from the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment was killed in fighting around Musa Qala on Saturday, and a spokesperson for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan said another of its 42 000 soldiers died in the south of the country on Sunday when a vehicle struck a mine. There are believed to have been further coalition casualties, although no details have yet been released.
Taliban spokespersons, who routinely exaggerate figures, claimed that 30 Nato soldiers had been killed and several armoured vehicles destroyed as their fighters flooded into the area.
United States troops began the operation on Friday, dropped by helicopter to positions south of the town. With Nato planes bombing Taliban positions, British and Afghan troops took up positions south, west and east of the town exchanging gunfire with Taliban fighters dug in behind minefields. According to the Afghan Defence Ministry, 12 insurgents and two children have died so far in the assault.
British troops involved in the fighting are from Royal Marines 40 Commando, the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment and 1st Battalion the Scots Guards, supported by light tanks from the Household Cavalry.
A resident of the town on Sunday said that Taliban fighters were surrounded and had been pushed back into the town’s centre. The Taliban were using ”big weapons” to keep Afghan and international forces back, Haji Mohammad Rauf told The Associated Press. ”Outside I can hear the sounds of explosions.”
Musa Qala is strategically important as it commands much of the fertile flat land of northern Helmand and is close to key British-held strongholds in Sangin, Nowzad and Kajaki. However its importance is symbolic.
After heavy fighting last year, Musa Qala was handed over to a council of tribal elders in a British-led initiative that was criticised by senior US commanders and politicians. In February, the Taliban retook control of the town. Musa Qala also sits astride key drug-trafficking routes. Helmand province is the biggest opium-producing area in Afghanistan. The number of Taliban fighters in the town is unknown; however, Eaton dismissed Taliban claims of 2 000 fighters in Musa Qala, estimating their number at ”closer to 200”.
Isaf commanders are keen to emphasise the Afghan element of the operation. The training of a competent and effective Afghan national army is a key part of the strategy to rebuild Afghanistan and create a sufficiently secure environment to allow international forces to be withdrawn.
”Right now [the Musa Qala operation] is going according to plan. As to how tough the fighting will or will not be, that is up to the insurgents,” General Dan McNeill, the American commander of Isaf, told reporters.
The Afghan Defence Ministry claimed the capture of two Taliban commanders, Mullah Mateen Akhond and Mullah Rahim Akhond.
Military commanders in Afghanistan describe the Taliban as composed of three ”tiers”: a core of ideologically committed militants; a second layer of ”fellow travellers” pursuing agendas that overlap with those of the Taliban such as feuds or drug trafficking; and a third tier of foot soldiers fighting for a mixture of reasons.
This year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001 with more than 6 200 people estimated to have been killed in insurgency-related violence.
Jean MacKenzie, Afghanistan country director for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, said reports reaching Kabul indicated that the Taliban were still entrenched in Musa Qala and that, though there had been no major bombardments, skirmishing had continued.
MacKenzie said: ”They could not hold it before, so I do not see why they will be able to hold it this time. This is far from the Taliban’s last stand. Even if forced out of Musa Qala, they still control much of the rest of Helmand.” — Guardian Unlimited Â