Troops set for major Afghanistan operation

Nato troops are to launch their biggest operation yet in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the British general in charge of forces there has said.

Major General Nick Carter told the BBC that the offensive would force the Taliban out of areas they controlled and strengthen the authority of the Afghan government in places which are currently lawless, reports AFP.

“If we’re going to win the argument on behalf of the Afghan government…then we need to assert the government’s control over those areas which are at the moment ungoverned,” Carter said on Monday.

The announcement of the planned offensive comes as the United States is pouring an additional 30,000 troops into Afghansitan this year, on top of 70,000 already there.

It was also made as international attention focuses even more intensely on Afghanistan ahead of a major international conference on stabilising the war-torn country in London on Thursday.

Carter, who has been at the head of Nato forces in southern Afghanistan since late 2009 and leads 45,000 servicemen and women, described Helmand as “a work in progress, simply ungoverned.”

Many parts of Helmand had no sort of administration at all, he told the BBC, adding if they were governed “it’s by parallel governments provided often by the Taliban.”

He would not disclose when the joint Nato and Afghan army operation would begin, but said it would target areas in central Helmand the government has not ruled for months or years.

Carter would not be drawn about the possible number of casualties in such a large operation, but there were significant losses during the last major offensive in Helmand in June and July last year, called Panther’s Claw.

Plans to explain the nature of the operation to Afghans in Helmand would lessen the chances of intense fighting, he said, adding: “We often find the Afghans don’t fight — but they welcome you.”

He also gave the example of an operation run in a similar way by Canadian forces to the west of Kandahar, during which he said “not a shot was fired”.

More than 113,000 international soldiers are currently fighting the Taliban under United States and Nato command and losing soldiers almost daily, in the conflict which started with the US-led invasion of 2001.