Taliban advance into Sangin threatens British military gains in Helmand
Emma Graham Harrison
The Observer, September 14, 2014
Royal Marines launching an attack in 2007 to remove Taliban insurgents from Sangin, Afghanistan. Photograph: Corporal Adrian Harlen/PA
The gains from Britain’s bloodiest battles in Afghanistan are now at risk afterTaliban fighters swarmed into Sangin and nearby parts of northern Helmand, taking control of villages, overrunning checkpoints and threatening the dusty towns that serve as the only government outposts in the area.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed or injured and thousands have fled their homes because of the fierce fighting, less than a year after David Cameron declared “mission accomplished”. The military setback in an area that became symbolic of the wider battle for Afghanistan raises uncomfortable questions about Helmand’s future and the British sacrifices meant to secure it from insurgent fighters.
"These attacks have been going on for around three months now," said Sulaiman Shah, Sangin district governor, after reluctantly agreeing to a telephone interview. He had been ordered not to speak to journalists. "There are some places which are under Taliban control," he said, naming several villages and warning that the situation was deteriorating. "We have had security problems over the last two or three years, but now it is much worse – the Taliban are getting stronger."
Sangin became a death trap for foreign forces from the moment they arrived in 2006. The first unit in the area endured the most intense ground fighting British soldiers had seen since the Korean war.
Nearly a quarter of the 453 British soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan died in Sangin or from injuries inflicted during fighting there, and when American troops replaced UK forces in late summer 2010 they initially had an even higher casualty rate.
By the time the last US marines left in the late spring of this year, the road north to a major dam had been cleared and the government was in control of the entire area. It was a shaky security, though, based on soldiers who had already tried to strike non-aggression deals with the Taliban, and police who were ill-prepared to protect themselves against battle-hardened insurgents.
"They were overrun because they weren’t postured properly," said Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson, the No 2 US commander in Afghanistan, in an interview earlier this year. “They were not doing the sufficient things you would do if you were manning checkpoints and securing an area.” The forces had let their guard down after largely successful efforts to secure two rounds of presidential elections in April and June, he said.
The number of Afghan police and soldiers killed in the summer’s fighting in Sangin and its neighbouring districts has already risen above 200, the New York Timesreported this month.
The top commander for the region, General Sayed Malook, was among those wounded by roadside bombs, when he was visiting troops in northern Helmand to deliver supplies and boost morale, although his injuries were not serious, a military source said.
The battles are having a terrible effect on the people who British troops thought their sacrifices would help – ordinary families in need of healthcare, education and security. In June alone, at least 50 civilians were killed in attacks by hundreds of insurgent fighters, and five times as many people were injured, the UN said. Many victims died waiting for medical help, because roads were blocked by fighting. Thousands of others have fled their homes seeking safety.
"For now, the district centres of Sangin, Musa Qala and Nawzad are under government control, but the whole area around them is held by the Taliban," said Nematullah Ghafari, a Helmand MP. "I don’t know the exact number of dead, but local people have told me that between 300 and 600 civilians have been killed since the fighting began."
Taliban control of several roads means supplies are being sent in by helicopter, said a second parliamentarian, Abdul Wadood Popal. “There is no good coordination between the different security forces – they are not helping each other in battle. This is why the enemy is strong and successful,” he said. “They are attacking around the clock.”
The news of a Taliban advance had dismayed British soldiers who fought in northern Helmand. “It’s fairly depressing that now that we’ve withdrawn and been assured by the powers above us that Afghan forces can hold their own, our efforts are potentially being reversed,” said Jake Wood, a former soldier who detailed the toll of military tours on teh British army in Sangin and Iraq in his book, Among You.
"While we were there, your only real focus is on your job at hand and the man beside you. But I would say, before you go and most certainly after, you just want all the sacrifices and all that blood to have been worth it, and you want it all to have meant something."
"It wouldn’t be good," said Lt Gen Anderson, when asked about the impact of losing such a high-profile area. Last year Gen Malook admitted that it could also trigger further losses: "If they took over Sangin, they could take over the other districts easily," he told the Wall Street Journal.
The bloody battles for Sangin, and the lucrative opium trade of its bazaar, have made the district a major prize for Taliban fighters, but it was not always an obvious strategic goal. A scrubby desert slashed by lush bands of fields along rivers and irrigation canals, it lies well north of a vital river crossing for travellers to Kandahar. A population of around 70,000 live in 200 villages dotted across an area smaller than the Isle of Man.
"We rather unwittingly wandered up there and then got trapped," said Mike Martin, a former soldier who charts blunders in Helmand in his book An Intimate War. Historically, he added, the area was never under central government control. “The rationale for spending all that time in northern Helmand is not immediately obvious and perhaps if you’d taken a longer historical perspective you might have chosen a different course.”
Emma Graham Harrison
The Observer, September 14, 2014Royal Marines launching an attack in 2007 to remove Taliban insurgents from Sangin, Afghanistan. Photograph: Corporal Adrian Harlen/PA
The gains from Britain’s bloodiest battles in Afghanistan are now at risk afterTaliban fighters swarmed into Sangin and nearby parts of northern Helmand, taking control of villages, overrunning checkpoints and threatening the dusty towns that serve as the only government outposts in the area.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed or injured and thousands have fled their homes because of the fierce fighting, less than a year after David Cameron declared “mission accomplished”. The military setback in an area that became symbolic of the wider battle for Afghanistan raises uncomfortable questions about Helmand’s future and the British sacrifices meant to secure it from insurgent fighters.
"These attacks have been going on for around three months now," said Sulaiman Shah, Sangin district governor, after reluctantly agreeing to a telephone interview. He had been ordered not to speak to journalists. "There are some places which are under Taliban control," he said, naming several villages and warning that the situation was deteriorating. "We have had security problems over the last two or three years, but now it is much worse – the Taliban are getting stronger."
Sangin became a death trap for foreign forces from the moment they arrived in 2006. The first unit in the area endured the most intense ground fighting British soldiers had seen since the Korean war.
Nearly a quarter of the 453 British soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan died in Sangin or from injuries inflicted during fighting there, and when American troops replaced UK forces in late summer 2010 they initially had an even higher casualty rate.
By the time the last US marines left in the late spring of this year, the road north to a major dam had been cleared and the government was in control of the entire area. It was a shaky security, though, based on soldiers who had already tried to strike non-aggression deals with the Taliban, and police who were ill-prepared to protect themselves against battle-hardened insurgents.
"They were overrun because they weren’t postured properly," said Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson, the No 2 US commander in Afghanistan, in an interview earlier this year. “They were not doing the sufficient things you would do if you were manning checkpoints and securing an area.” The forces had let their guard down after largely successful efforts to secure two rounds of presidential elections in April and June, he said.
The number of Afghan police and soldiers killed in the summer’s fighting in Sangin and its neighbouring districts has already risen above 200, the New York Timesreported this month.
The top commander for the region, General Sayed Malook, was among those wounded by roadside bombs, when he was visiting troops in northern Helmand to deliver supplies and boost morale, although his injuries were not serious, a military source said.
The battles are having a terrible effect on the people who British troops thought their sacrifices would help – ordinary families in need of healthcare, education and security. In June alone, at least 50 civilians were killed in attacks by hundreds of insurgent fighters, and five times as many people were injured, the UN said. Many victims died waiting for medical help, because roads were blocked by fighting. Thousands of others have fled their homes seeking safety.
"For now, the district centres of Sangin, Musa Qala and Nawzad are under government control, but the whole area around them is held by the Taliban," said Nematullah Ghafari, a Helmand MP. "I don’t know the exact number of dead, but local people have told me that between 300 and 600 civilians have been killed since the fighting began."
Taliban control of several roads means supplies are being sent in by helicopter, said a second parliamentarian, Abdul Wadood Popal. “There is no good coordination between the different security forces – they are not helping each other in battle. This is why the enemy is strong and successful,” he said. “They are attacking around the clock.”
The news of a Taliban advance had dismayed British soldiers who fought in northern Helmand. “It’s fairly depressing that now that we’ve withdrawn and been assured by the powers above us that Afghan forces can hold their own, our efforts are potentially being reversed,” said Jake Wood, a former soldier who detailed the toll of military tours on teh British army in Sangin and Iraq in his book, Among You.
"While we were there, your only real focus is on your job at hand and the man beside you. But I would say, before you go and most certainly after, you just want all the sacrifices and all that blood to have been worth it, and you want it all to have meant something."
"It wouldn’t be good," said Lt Gen Anderson, when asked about the impact of losing such a high-profile area. Last year Gen Malook admitted that it could also trigger further losses: "If they took over Sangin, they could take over the other districts easily," he told the Wall Street Journal.
The bloody battles for Sangin, and the lucrative opium trade of its bazaar, have made the district a major prize for Taliban fighters, but it was not always an obvious strategic goal. A scrubby desert slashed by lush bands of fields along rivers and irrigation canals, it lies well north of a vital river crossing for travellers to Kandahar. A population of around 70,000 live in 200 villages dotted across an area smaller than the Isle of Man.
"We rather unwittingly wandered up there and then got trapped," said Mike Martin, a former soldier who charts blunders in Helmand in his book An Intimate War. Historically, he added, the area was never under central government control. “The rationale for spending all that time in northern Helmand is not immediately obvious and perhaps if you’d taken a longer historical perspective you might have chosen a different course.”
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