U.S. Steps Up Airstrikes Against ISIS After It Gains Territory in Afghanistan
Michal S. Schmidt, New York Times, March 19, 2016
WASHINGTON — The United States has significantly intensified its bombing campaign in Afghanistan in the past two months as part of President Obama’s widening war against the Islamic State militants who have seized territory outside of Iraq and Syria, according to senior military commanders.
American drones and fighter jets dropped 251 bombs and missiles in January and February in Afghanistan, more than three times the strikes in the same period last year, according to data compiled by the Air Force.
The strikes came in response to a decision by Mr. Obama around the beginning of the year that gave the military more leeway to launch attacks on Islamic State militants who had gained control over territory in several provinces, including areas in the Tora Bora region, where Osama bin Laden once took refuge.
Afghan and American commanders said that while the strikes have dealt a blow to the Islamic State, they have broader concerns about the security situation in Afghanistan because the Taliban appear stronger than at any point since 2001, and its 20,000 to 40,000 fighters are estimated to be at least 20 times the number of militants aligned with the Islamic State.
The widening nature of the air campaign — and the fact that the United States is increasing its strikes in Afghanistan a little more than a year after Mr. Obama declared an end to combat missions there — has set off a debate inside the administration and among national security experts. Some have questioned whether the administration should treat each emerging Islamic State affiliate as a legitimate threat to the United States that requires a military response, and whether the focus should be more on the Taliban than the Islamic State.
Under the current rules of engagement ordered by Mr. Obama, American forces can attack the Taliban if they pose a direct threat to those forces. The military has far more latitude to engage fighters from the Islamic State, also known asISIS or ISIL.
Gen. John F. Campbell, the departing American commander in Afghanistan, said that broader authority granted to him by Mr. Obama to attack Islamic State fighters had enabled him to take more aggressive measures against the terrorist group.
“We’ve significantly increased our ability to go after ISIL, particularly in Nangarhar,” General Campbell said, referring to the province in eastern Afghanistan that includes part of the Tora Bora mountain region.Photo
Gen. John F. Campbell, the departing American commander in Afghanistan, at a news conference in Kabul last month. Credit Pool photo by Omar Sobhani
General Campbell had asked the administration to give the military more authority to strike the Taliban.
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter are in the process of making recommendations to Mr. Obama that would expand the military’s authority in Afghanistan.
The potential changes would “make us more effective in supporting Afghan forces in 2016,” General Dunford said Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a private organization that tracks airstrikes, said that between 332 and 359 people have been killed in American air attacks in January and February, five times the number from the first two months of 2015.
The strikes this year occurred at the highest rate since American aircraft launched 490 strikes in 2013, according to the Air Force. In the same period in 2014, there were 206 airstrikes. There were 70 in that time in 2015.
Three-quarters of the strikes this year were conducted by drones, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The organization said one civilian — a child — was killed in the attacks.
Afghanistan is at least the fourth country where Mr. Obama has struck fighters aligned with the Islamic State. Along with the daily bombings against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, the United States has conducted strikes and operations in Libya in recent months.
Mr. Obama, who has been criticized for not acting forcefully enough to defeat the Islamic State, adopted a two-pronged strategy last year for defeating the group.
That approach focused on pushing the Islamic State out of the main cities it controlled in Iraq and Syria with the use of Arab forces on the ground and American airpower, and defeating the affiliates that had metastasized elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and southwest Asia.
Some officials and experts contend that the affiliates merely represent the opportunistic rebranding by existing local militant groups seeking global notoriety and, possibly, financial or technical assistance.
But others argue that the affiliates — which have governed some cities and towns under strict Islamic law, and have shown a penchant for brutal violence — must be stopped before they grow.
“There is no limit if one decides we should go after ISIS wherever it is,” said Paul R. Pillar, a former C.I.A. analyst who teaches at Georgetown University.
Many of the Islamic State militants in Afghanistan are former members of the Pakistani Taliban, who were pushed over the border into Afghanistan after operations by the Pakistani military, according to military commanders. They are not nearly as capable of pulling off complex attacks as Daesh, as the Islamic State is also called, in Iraq and Syria, according to Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, the military spokesman in Kabul.
“They do not have the ability to orchestrate operations in more than one part of the country at a time,” General Shoffner said this month in a briefing with reporters. “We’re also not seeing what we would consider command-and-control by Daesh elements in Iraq or Syria dictating or orchestrating operations here in Afghanistan.”
Last summer, the group controlled land in at least six provinces across the country, according to the military commanders. But in recent weeks, Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, and American military commanders said that the air campaign and ground operations by Afghan forces have confined the militants to one province.
“We are proud that Afghanistan is the only country where Daesh is on the run,” Mr. Ghani said this month in an address to the Afghan Parliament. “Today, they are fleeing from Nangarhar, and Afghanistan will be their graveyard.”
Along with the airstrikes, American commanders said the Islamic State, which receives little money from outside Afghanistan, has been hurt by the Taliban, as the groups have fought over revenue streams.
“That’s one of the reasons why Daesh has struggled here in Afghanistan, because they are attempting to fund themselves in large part by generating revenue streams within Afghanistan,” General Shoffner said.
A Pentagon spokesman, Jeff Davis, said Friday, “Although considerable challenges remain, the department is confident that the Afghan security forces are continuing to develop the capabilities and capacity to secure the country against a persistent insurgent threat.”
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