Afghan offensive targets insurgents

NATO forces on Tuesday launched the alliance’s largest offensive yet against insurgents in southern Afghanistan, marking the start of what both sides predict will be an intense round of fighting over the spring and summer.

The operation, centered in volatile Helmand province, will eventually involve 4,500 NATO troops and about 1,000 soldiers from the Afghan national army, military spokesmen said. Commanders declined to specify how many troops took part in the initial push, or elaborate on the fighting that had taken place so far.

Four Taliban militants were killed in the initial round of combat, Afghan defense officials reported. A British soldier also died Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, but British defense officials later said the soldier had not been part of the offensive.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been vowing for months to root out thousands of Taliban fighters, who together with foreign militants have ensconced themselves in Helmand, the world’s largest grower of opium poppies.

Taliban and other militants have for some time been able to move freely in and out of the rugged province, which borders Pakistan. Alliance troops, however, lately have managed to kill several important insurgent figures in pinpoint raids in Helmand, including Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Osmani, slain in an American airstrike in December.

A resurgence

Drug revenues are believed to be funding the resurgence of the Taliban militia, which had been left scattered and demoralized after the Islamist movement was toppled in 2001 by U.S.-led forces. The coalition offensive in part was aimed at disrupting the drug trade, Western military officials said.

Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, said the offensive was centered on “improving security in areas where Taliban extremists, narco-traffickers and foreign terrorists are currently operating.” NATO spokesmen said securing the area would pave the way for the resumption of reconstruction projects, which have been largely paralyzed in much of the south by rising violence.

Helmand province has proved a particularly difficult venue for the alliance. Last spring, the United States poured nearly 11,000 troops into the province’s north, an engagement that ended with a declaration of victory, followed in subsequent months by a steady re-infiltration by militants.

The province is now thought to contain the greatest number of insurgents in Afghanistan.

In early February, Taliban fighters overran the town of Musa Qala, where a British-brokered accord had halted fighting. Many townspeople fled when the insurgents arrived, but those who stayed reported being terrorized by the militants, particularly if they were suspected of having ties to the Afghan government or friendly contacts with NATO forces.

The allied offensive is open-ended, coalition commanders said. American, British, Canadian and Dutch troops were taking part in the fighting.

The U.S. contingent eventually will total about 1,500 troops, spokesmen said, but the number taking part in the offensive’s initial phase was not specified.

Until now, British troops have borne the brunt of fighting in Helmand. For months, they have tried to secure a major hydroelectric dam in the district of Kajiki but have been unable to keep insurgents out of the area.

Threat of suicide attacks

Both sides say they are ready to seize the offensive this spring. Taliban commanders have boasted of having thousands of suicide bombers and other fighters at the ready.

NATO, for its part, has vowed to take the fight to insurgent strongholds. “I do not think you would be wrong if you were to characterize it as the start of ISAF’s major operations for 2007,” Collins told journalists in Kabul, the capital.

Senior Western commanders sought to put the spotlight on the Afghan troops involved in the operation, even though nearly five times as many NATO soldiers will take part. The alliance’s southern commander, Maj. Gen. Ton van Loon, said, “We need to make sure the government of Afghanistan, with our support ... secures the area.”

Afghan defense officials took a decidedly lower-key approach, confirming only that the operation had begun and Afghan troops were involved.

Taliban commanders predicted that the NATO offensive would quickly founder. “They will resort to bombing that kills innocent people,” Qari Mohammed Yousuf, a purported militia spokesman, told Reuters news agency.

Afghan officials said Monday that nine civilians died in a U.S. airstrike north of Kabul. The strike obliterated a compound where U.S. officials said insurgents who attacked an American firebase had taken shelter.

Afghan officials said a Taliban fighter lived in the compound but had apparently escaped.

Analysts have suggested that insurgents may rely heavily on suicide attacks and roadside bombings rather than seeking a conventional military confrontation with NATO troops.

Bombing, kidnappings

Afghan officials said a policeman was killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb in Helmand province.

Further underscoring the area’s lawlessness, an Italian journalist and two Afghan colleagues were reported to have been seized by insurgents in Helmand. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica said on its website that it had lost contact on Sunday with reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who last checked in from neighboring Kandahar province.

A Taliban spokesman had earlier identified the captured Westerner as a British national.

king@latimes.com

Special correspondent Azimi reported from Kabul and Times staff writer King from Istanbul, Turkey.