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6 in Allied Forces Die in Afghanistan

19 February 2010 17:33 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. More than half of the 11 NATO fatalities in the Marja offensive so far occurred on Thursday, as Taliban fighters continued to put up determined resistance in some parts of the city in southern Helmand Province, APA reports quoting the New York Times.
Spokesmen for the International Security Assistance Force and the British Ministry of Defense on Friday confirmed that four Americans and two British servicemen had been killed on Thursday. In all, eight Americans and three Britons have died in the first week of the offensive.
The operation will take another 25 to 30 days â€œto be entirely sure that we have secured that which needs to be secured,â€ Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the commander of British forces in the offensive and of the NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said in a video teleconference with reporters in Washington on Thursday.
At the same time, spokesmen for the international force said efforts had already begun to restore civic society to Marja, which with 80,000 people is the most populous Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan. â€œTo date, two â€˜schools-in-a-boxâ€™ have been opened in Nad-e-Ali,â€ a news release from the international force said Friday.
The expression refers to Gen. Stanley A. McChrystalâ€™s strategy to have a â€œgovernment in a boxâ€ ready to set up in Marja as soon as it is secure, quickly reestablishing government services to an area long without them. The two schools have a capacity of 25 students each, the international force said.
The news release said 250 â€œcash-for-workâ€ employees had been hired in Nad-e-Ali, the district that includes Marja, and three employees were hired to fill 27 vacant jobs in the district government.
The same release, however, stressed that â€œthe combined force is meeting determined pockets of resistance in both the north and east of Marja City.â€
â€œIn Marja itself, there remains stiff resistance from the insurgents,â€ General Carter said. â€œAnd U.S. Marines in partnership with Afghan security forces are still fighting an intense series of actions, in the process of clearing Marja as a whole.â€ General Carter said it would take three months to see if government efforts after the fighting ends will have won over residents.
The mixed picture from NATO officials was in contrast to statements from Afghan military and government officials suggesting it was all but over. NATO spokesmen repeatedly have emphasized that Afghan forces were taking the lead in the offensive, but there has been little evidence of that so far.
â€œThe operation seems almost over,â€ said Gen. Sher Mohammed Zazai, who as commander of the Afghan National Armyâ€™s 205th Corps is the top Afghan officer involved in the offensive. â€œWe are still facing some resistance from the enemy but it is not so heavy,â€ he said Friday.
On Monday, General Zazai said the only resistance was a small pocket in the south of the city; on the same day, NATO briefers said the south was under control and only the north and east were still contested.
General Zazai also was unclear about his own forcesâ€™ casualties. â€œIf we have received casualties, itâ€™s not enough to mention,â€ he said Friday.
At the Joint Media Center in Helmand, set up by Afghan military and civilian officials, the top spokesman, Col. Mohammed Zahir Murad, put the Afghan militaryâ€™s casualties at three dead and three wounded as of Friday.
However, Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand governor, said Friday that only one Afghan soldier had been killed, and three wounded, in the fighting so far. Mr. Ahmadi estimated that 40 to 45 Taliban fighters had been killed in Marja. The Associated Press quoted unnamed Marine officers as saying 120 Taliban fighters may have died. A spokesman for the Taliban in the area, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, reached by telephone, denied that, saying they had lost only seven killed so far.
The United States and British military released scant detail on the six deaths of their troops Thursday.
The six men died in five separate episodes, the international force said, including an improvised explosive device that killed two, and four episodes of small-arms fire that killed one person each. It appeared, based on incomplete official reports, that those five episodes took place at scattered locations in the area of the offensive.
Taliban snipers were reported to be especially active in Marja in recent days.
The British Ministry of Defense issued statements saying its two Marja-related fatalities on Thursday, one from First Battalion Scots Guards and the other from First Battalion Coldstream Guards, were killed in the Nad-e-Ali and Babaji areas, respectively.
â€œI would be very cautious about any triumphalism just yet,â€ General Carter said, adding that he was nonetheless optimistic that the offensive was going well so far.
Civilian casualties in the offensive have been relatively light, according to the international forceâ€™s reports, which put the total number at 15. A human rights activist in Kandahar, Abdul Rahman Hotaki, claimed at a press conference in the southern city that 21 civilians have been killed in all.
By comparison, civilian deaths in the second battle of Falluja, in November 2004, were estimated by the Red Cross at 800; other estimates were in the thousands. Ninety-five American, 3 British and 11 Iraqi troops were killed, and more than 560 wounded in the nine-day-long Falluja battle, with which Marja had often been compared in the weeks before the current offensive began.