Police ready to take over parts of Marjah

AFP:

Afghan police on Sunday prepared to take control of a town at the centre of a US-led offensive against the Taliban, as trapped residents said they were running out of food.

About 15,000 Afghan and NATO troops faced tough fighting as Operation Mushtarak entered a second week, with gunfights and mines bogging down attempts to secure the Nad Ali and Marjah areas of the southern province of Helmand.

Civilians locked down by bombs sewn across the conflict zone were facing increasingly desperate conditions, but officials were hopeful that an elite Afghan police force would soon be able to control parts of Marjah township.

General Muhaidin Ghori, the Afghan National Army commander for Helmand province, said that about 600 police with the newly established Public Protection Police Force had expanded their positions day-by-day since Friday.

"They are in Marjah centre, in the bazaar," he told AFP.

"We are busy carrying out the clean-up and search operations to provide the grounds for establishing the opportunities for installing permanent posts and bases for the police to take up their policing duty."

Fully securing the target area in the central Helmand River valley however could take another month as troops led by US Marines strive to clear the innumerable bombs planted by the militants.

NATO on Sunday described "determined resistance" in some areas including Marjah with bombs and sporadic gunfights, adding that battlefield commanders believe "the clearing phase... will take at least 30 days to complete".

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But Daud Ahmadi, the Helmand provincial governor's spokesman, said despite the police presence in Marjah, government authorities did not yet have complete control of any target areas, including the main market seized on Wednesday.

The market remained closed, he said, with civilians still unable to move freely because gardens, roads and paths were heavily mined.

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This suggest a downside to the strategy of announcing our intentions to take places like Marjah. The enemy holds the non combatants hostages while it has weeks to booby trap the city trapping the civilians in place even as our forces drive out the bad guys.

Karzai continues to make the atrocious mistake of blaming our forces for the death of civilians caught in the fight. The true cause is the Taliban's camouflaging themselves as civilians and then taking civilians as human shields. If he is going to complain about civilian casualties he should at least make that point and quit pointing his finger at the troops trying to help his people.