KANDAHAR, Afghanistan

The push such as it is has started now. Much of the activity is not so much in Kandahar itself as in rural areas adjacent to the city and in more or less rural suburbs.

"The deliberate campaign has begun in Kandahar," Gen. David H. Petraeus, the NATO commander, said on Aug. 31. "In some areas the Taliban momentum has reversed, but there's clearly a lot more work to be done."

The American A-10 Warthog attack plane is involved. It fires 70 30 mm shells a second, There has been intense fighting in some areas and casualties on both sides. But within the city the fight is lower key. I would hope so. It would not be good PR to have a Warthog blasting heavily populated areas!

An important target has been the Mehlajat area which is semirural and in the southwest of the city. The area was ruled by the Taliban and police feared to venture there. Taliban courts handed out death sentences. A five day operation ending August 31 cleared the area. There was not a single civilian or Taliban casualty. Later it is mentioned that two NATO soldiers were killed and a number of Afghan soldiers wounded. In any event the Taliban have just vanished into the woodwork.

"It's not perfect, but it's a good news story," said Lt. Col. John Voorhees of the United States Army's 504th Military Police Battalion, who commanded the American task force that backed up the Afghan police in Mehlajat. Notice that in these reports now it is always the Afghans that are supposed to be doing the leading and the NATO forces backing them up. One just wonders how true this is. This article by the way is by an unnamed Afghan employee of the New York Times. No doubt he is not named so that he is not the subject of a death sentence by some Taliban court!

Afghan police and U.S. troops are trying to create a permanent presence in the area. But many of the 200 Afghan police are fresh out from a six week training program. Ten per cent do not even have rifles yet! Again we get the refrain that even though the U.S. has all the air support and advanced weaponry and logistics that the Afghans are out in front!

The Americans bring an array of modern weaponry, from surveillance drones to close air support. "We have to backstop them at every stage," Colonel Voorhees said. "But they are out in front."

The U.S. also comes with bags of Afghan money to pay off disgruntled Afghans who want compensation for destroyed buildings and property.

Hamidzai Lelay a former police official says the Mehlajat operation:"The operation in Mehlajat was good but not very effective. Good because no civilians were killed, but the negative part is that most of the insurgents just went to other parts of the city."

A recent local media account put the number of assassinations in Kandahar City since mid-June at 397, suggesting a rate of four or five a day, a pace that appears to be continuing. One wonders if this number includes special forces operations or just Taliban and other assassinations.

At least this article provides some information about what is happening. There does not seem to much information about what exact form the offence is supposed to take except that areas are to be cleared and that the Afghan government and police--protected by NATO forces--will take over cleared areas. It will take some time to see how successful this is. There is not much reporting about Marjah of late where Afghan governance has been weak and the whole area continued to depend upon U.S. marines for security.

- By northsunm32 | allvoices.com