Nato takes heavy casualties in Marjah

Six Nato troops have been killed in Afghanistan in the worst single-day loss for international forces since the launch of a big offensive to drive Taliban insurgents from the town of Marjah.

The deaths on Thursday, followed by the loss of another soldier on Friday, underscore the risks US, UK and Afghan troops face as they seek to clear what commanders describe as pockets of resistance by fighters digging in to resist one of the biggest operations launched by Nato in Afghanistan since 2001.
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The seven casualties brought the death toll of international troops from the six-day operation to 12, an official for the Nato-led force in Afghanistan said.

More than a dozen civilians have also lost their lives in the operation. Provincial officials said several dozen insurgents had been killed.

Nick Carter, the British commander of Nato forces in southern Afghanistan, said late on Thursday via a video link to the Pentagon that the offensive was facing resistance in Marjah and might take another month to clear the area of Taliban fighters.

“In Marjah itself there remains stiff resistance from the insurgents,” Maj-Gen Carter told reporters. “It will be some days before we can be completely confident that Marjah is secure.”

Maj-Gen Carter said it could take another three months to determine how successful the operation had been.

It is the first big offensive launched since Barack Obama, US president, ordered an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in December, and is seen as an important test of whether the latest troop surge can have a lasting impact on the Taliban.

Commanders have said the assault on Marjah is part of a wider plan to secure population centres in southern Afghanistan, the focal point for the insurgency, that will give the Afghan government time to start building the institutions needed to deny insurgents support.

The offensive has taken place alongside signs that the Taliban is facing growing pressure in Pakistan, where the movement’s second-in-command and military chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was arrested last week in a joint US-Pakistan operation. Pakistani security officials said on Thursday they had also arrested two Taliban “shadow governors” – appointed by the movement to set up parallel administrations in two Afghan provinces.

An important part of US strategy for stabilising the region is to encourage Pakistan to crack down on Afghan insurgents operating from its territory while Nato forces increase the military pressure on the movement in Afghanistan.