Preparing the ground for a major Helmand offensive 05 February 2010
Preparations for Operation Moshtarak - in pictures
- The six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak have been conducting battle preparations at Camp Bastion. Alongside the British troops are soldiers from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, France and Estonia. (45.96kb)
- The six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak have been conducting battle preparations at Camp Bastion. Alongside the British troops are soldiers from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, France and Estonia. (56.67kb)
- The six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak have been conducting battle preparations at Camp Bastion. Alongside the British troops are soldiers from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, France and Estonia. (40.71kb)
- The six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak have been conducting battle preparations at Camp Bastion. Alongside the British troops are soldiers from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, France and Estonia. (25.53kb)
- The six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak have been conducting battle preparations at Camp Bastion. Alongside the British troops are soldiers from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, France and Estonia. (58.74kb)
- The six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak have been conducting battle preparations at Camp Bastion. Alongside the British troops are soldiers from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, France and Estonia. (32.81kb)
- The six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak have been conducting battle preparations at Camp Bastion. Alongside the British troops are soldiers from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, France and Estonia. (32.93kb)
- The six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak have been conducting battle preparations at Camp Bastion. Alongside the British troops are soldiers from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, France and Estonia. (38.90kb)
- The six nations involved in Operation Moshtarak have been conducting battle preparations at Camp Bastion. Alongside the British troops are soldiers from Afghanistan, Canada, the United States, France and Estonia. (38.71kb)
Over the last two days elements of the Royal Welsh, Grenadier Guards and Scots Guards have taken part in an air and ground ISAF operation to the south of Nad e-Ali, Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Operation Moshtarak has been planned to remove insurgents from areas of central Helmand that have not previously been cleared by ISAF troops.
Major General Gordon Messenger briefed the media yesterday (4 February) about the operation. He said it was fully supported by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and that local leaders including Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal had been party to the planning stages and are leading the governance effort that will follow.
The word 'moshtarak' means 'together' in Dari and it has been chosen to reflect the joint nature of the operation - Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) have been more engaged in the leadership and planning of this operation than in any other so far.
General Messenger said that the operation was the second phase of a plan to secure central Helmand from the influence of the Taliban, the first stage being the moves led by Major General Nick Carter to secure areas around Kandahar and the improvement of movement on Highway 1 and Highway 601, which run through Helmand province.
The operation will be a multinational ISAF operation, led by the US Marine Corps. It has yet to begin, but the operations over the last two days by British and Afghan forces have been building momentum towards it.
In his briefing, General Messenger also explained that the areas being targeted have long wanted to be cleared by commanders, and that now they have the combined ISAF/Afghan manpower to do so. He said the plan was to clear the area in a way that was as least aggressive as possible,
He said "it is about the security of the population, not fighting down insurgent numbers," but added that a fight cannot be discounted and, with that, casualties.
Lieutenant General Nick Parker, the ISAF Deputy Commander in Afghanistan, said that Operation Moshtarak would be the first part of a three-stage plan to increase security in the country. He said that after the insurgency in the south had been subdued, British forces would move to building capacity in the Afghan National Security Forces and that this would likely become the main effort later in the year. The third stage will be transition and the reintegration of insurgents and sympathisers into Afghan society through an Afghan-led reintegration policy.