Marjah: Success for the military, hell for the residents

Afghans walk behind U.S. Marines from Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines during an operation in Marjah, Helmand province, Feb. 21, 2010. NATO forces are facing strong resistance eight days into a major offensive in southern Afghanistan as Taliban fighters dig in to fight to the death. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

MARJAH, Afghanistan — The dusty squares of Marjah are empty; there is no life, the soul of the place seems to have disappeared. Those residents who are left cower in their homes, afraid of bullets or mines if they venture out, even for food.

“It is a small picture of Doomsday,” said Alishah Mazlumyar, the head of Helmand’s Department of Information and Culture, and a member of the Marjah shura, or council. “Dozens of civilians have been killed. Their families cannot bury the bodies, and for days they have been lying in their houses, beginning to decompose. There is a smell of death here.”

Twelve days into Operation Moshtarak — pitting 15,000 U.S., British and Afghan troops against a few hundred Taliban — the message from the military and diplomatic communities is resolutely upbeat.

Western diplomats term the operation a success, and the media office of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) points to a bright future.

“Signs of steady progress in development and governance are being seen in central Helmand province. Bridges, roads and culverts are being repaired, bazaars are re-opening and attracting customers, and a variety of initiatives are being planned or implemented,” read the IJC press release of Feb. 22.

But those in Marjah are telling a very different story.

“There has been very little progress,” said Haji Abdurrahman Jan, the head of the Marjah shura and a former police chief in Helmand. “The foreign and Afghan forces have advanced only 2 kilometers from their descent point. This is very little in relation to their numbers.”

The residents of Marjah, perhaps unrealistically, expected that the operation would be over much more quickly.

“We thought it would take three days, maximum,” said Abdurrahman. “This will have very bad consequences for the people of Marjah.”

But Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the governor of Helmand, insisted that the slow pace is a deliberate tactic designed to protect the civilian population.

“We do not want civilian people to be harmed,” he said. “We need to take every step with care.”

The official rules of engagement have been made quite strict, according to military sources. The combined troops are allowed to open fire only if they see an insurgent about to shoot.

“The Taliban were waiting to ambush us in Mullah Dost Mohammad square,” one Afghan Army soldier recalled with a grin, as he toyed with his rocket-propelled grenade launcher (RPG). “We attacked them, and they ran into people’s houses. So we conducted a search, and there they are, sitting with no guns, and the owner is telling us ‘No, they are not Taliban.’ There was nothing we could do. Our commander would not let us take them.”

But residents say that the foreign forces are firing with abandon at anyone they suspect could be an insurgent — a difficult call in this predominantly Pashtun area, where most men wear heavy beards and cover their heads with turbans.

Casualty figures for civilians are difficult to confirm; officially, the government is saying that 16 people have died. But residents in Marjah say the toll is much higher.

“Seddiq Jan was a good person,” said a resident of Wakil Wazir Square. “The Americans shot him. There was no one to bury him, so a friend and I dragged him away and quickly put him in a shallow hole and covered him with dirt.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/afghanistan/100224/marjah-military-afghanistan