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Gen.: Attacks down sharply in E. Afghanistan

CAMP BLACKHORSE, Afghanistan — Militant attacks in eastern Afghanistan are down sharply compared with a year ago, a top U.S. general said Sunday.

Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel said aggressive military operations, improved Afghan governance and outreach to tribal elders have given U.S. and Afghan troops the upper hand heading into this spring, when militant activity is expected to undergo an annual post-winter spike.

“I think if there’s going to be an offensive in the spring — the offensive is going to be ours, led by the (Afghan National Security Forces),” Votel told reporters at Camp Blackhorse, an Afghan army base east of Kabul.

There have been 36 attacks so far this month in the eastern Afghanistan region where U.S. forces are based. That number is on pace to be 35 percent below the total last February of 110, according to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

ISAF has tallied 25 roadside bomb attacks in that region so far this month, compared with 62 last February. Border attacks have dropped from 24 last year to six this year.

Votel said the joint forces will be “better poised” to deal with the insurgency this spring because of the high number of insurgent leaders killed or captured within the last year and because tribal elders are “beginning to see the value of embracing their own government.”

The U.S. says more than 50 militant leaders have been killed in the last year.

The joint U.S.-Afghan forces have stayed connected with the people by keeping up winter operations, meeting with key tribal leaders and providing humanitarian assistance, Votel said.

About half of the insurgency-related violence in the region is in Kunar province, Votel said, attributing the fighting to poor governance. A newly appointed Kunar governor and better trained Afghan forces will improve the situation.

“We are stronger than the enemy,” said Brig. Gen. Rahim Wardak, the commander of the Afghan army’s 201st corps. “We have the capability to destroy the enemy and create a good environment for peace for the Afghan residents in the area.”

In the latest violence, coalition forces killed several insurgents and two civilians after militants barricaded in a mud-brick home fired on the troops in the southern province of Helmand, the coalition said Sunday.

The troops were looking for a Taliban leader in Kajaki district when they came under fire, a statement said.

“While coalition forces conducted a search of the building during one operation, armed assailants who were barricaded in separate rooms engaged coalition forces with small-arms fire and hand grenades. The assailants were killed when coalition forces responded in self-defense,” said coalition spokesman Army Maj. Chris Belcher.

The coalition statement said “a number of insurgents” were killed, as were a woman and child who were in one of the rooms the militants were attacking from.

“It is a deplorable yet common tactic of insurgents to place innocent women and children in harm’s way,” Belcher said.

Two individuals, suspected of having ties with the Taliban, were detained in the operations, the coalition said.

Afghan authorities have pleaded with international forces to coordinate closely with their Afghan counterparts to prevent civilian casualties, but Taliban militants often fight from villagers’ homes, putting civilians at risk. International forces accuse the insurgents of using women and children as human shields.

A freshly planted roadside bomb, meanwhile, hit a vehicle convoy carrying the governor of Kandahar, killing three policemen and wounding two others, said Governor Asadullah Khalid. He was not hurt in the attack.

The convoy was returning from a mission to conduct poppy eradication in Maiwand district, Khalid said. Two suspects were arrested, said Mohammad Nabi, a police official.

Southern Afghanistan, the world’s largest opium producing region, has been at the front line of battles between insurgents and foreign forces in recent years.