22 AFGHAN MILITANTS KILLED IN JOINT AFGHAN-NATO MILITARY OPERATION
Kabul, 15 Dhul Hijja 1434/20 October 2013 (MINA) – Twenty-two militants have been killed in joint military operations between Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and the NATO-led ISAF in the last 24 hours, the Interior Minister, Omar Daudzai said Sunday.
“ANSF and the NATO-led ISAF coalition troops carried out several cleanup operations in surrounding areas of Uruzgan, Kandahar, Ghazni and Herat provinces over the past 24 hours, killing 22 armed Taliban insurgents,” the ministry said in a statement.
They also seized weapons and explosive materials, the statement added without saying if there were any casualties on the side of Afghan and Nato-led troops, Xin Hua news agency reported as monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
The Joint operations between international and Afghan forces are restarting, Pentagon officials said, easing a prohibition on small-unit patrols that presented a high risk for insider attacks that have killed dozens of allied troops.
In the wake of fallout from a video, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said last week it had halted joint operations between smaller units to guard against the problem of Afghan soldiers shooting their U.S. counterparts.
Defense officials said they resumed most of the joint small-unit patrols after regional commanders made security reviews and added force-protection measures. Officials consider the joint patrols crucial to let Afghan soldiers take over security after NATO forces depart in 2014.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday he expected such attacks to continue.
“The purpose of those insider attacks has been to target the very trust that we need between ISAF and Afghan forces,” Mr. Panetta said. “That trust is critical to completing this transition.”
Defense officials said levels of cooperation haven’t returned to the pre-suspension conditions. “It’s not back to the status quo,” said a defense official.
In the field, tensions remain high over the threat that seemingly friendly Afghans turn their weapons on allied troops. Such attacks have claimed the lives of 51 U.S. and NATO troops this year. Defense officials haven’t be able to explain the majority of insider attacks, but are increasingly blaming Taliban militants.
Other measures are newer. At one small outpost in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, U.S. troops temporarily cut back on jogging outdoors, as a safety precaution.
U.S. troops are still wary around Afghan soldiers. On one mission Thursday morning, an Army sergeant spotted a group of Afghan National Army troops outside an Afghan government compound.
“These are the guys you have to worry about, more than the enemy,” the sergeant told a reporter. “They’re loaded for bear.”
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who visited Afghanistan this week, said a directive limiting joint operations was meant to buy time for commanders on the ground to “assess their own situation.”
The suspension came in a classified directive Sept. 16 that said regional commanders must approve any joint operations between units below the level of a battalion, instantly putting a halt to joint patrols and combined operations between international and Afghan troops.
Joint operations must still be approved by regional commanders, but many requests are now being quickly approved, officials said.
In 2009, a directive put in place by the top U.S. commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, pushed all U.S. forces to integrate more closely with Afghan forces to improve their training.(T/P04/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
