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Emerging Epicenter In the Afghan War: NATO Aims to Loosen Taliban's Grip in Helmand (Griff Witte, 3/15/07, Washington Post)

As the weather improves and Afghanistan enters its traditional fighting season, the province is shaping up as the war's central battlefield in a critical test for a country increasingly teetering under the pressure of a violent insurgency.

With a weak government presence in Helmand, the Taliban has gained more control there than in any other province in the five years since U.S.-led forces ejected the Islamic militia from power, according to foreign and Afghan officials.

In many villages, Taliban gunmen patrol day and night, residents said in telephone interviews. Some government supporters have been beheaded or hanged. Men who shave their beards, in breach of Taliban orders, have faced public whippings.

Meanwhile, NATO forces, now commanded by a four-star U.S. general, are focused on Helmand for their largest Afghan offensive ever. In the past week, NATO planes have carried out frequent airstrikes, trying to loosen the Taliban's grip before troops move in for what is expected to be intense ground combat this spring and summer.

Caught in between are Helmand residents who say they are fed up with both sides.

"Most of the people want the situation to be resolved very soon," said Nematullah Ghaffari, a cleric from the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, who represents the area in parliament. "Whether they want the government to take over or the Taliban, they are stuck in the middle right now, and they are suffering a lot."

But a quick resolution is unlikely, given the degree of instability.

"Helmand is everything in one. Drug trafficking. Weak government. Hard-core Taliban who are spreading fear," said Talatbek Masadykov, chief of political affairs for the U.N. mission in Afghanistan. "The perception of many of the local people is that Helmand is almost lost."

Masadykov said he believes Helmand can still be turned around. The Taliban, he said, is actually fairly weak and enjoys little popular support. But he said that the government is not providing residents adequate protection and that winning the province back would take "immediate, urgent changes within the province. If the government can put in place a strong, qualified, professional team of leaders, with weapons and ammunition for the army and police, there's still an opportunity to reverse the situation."

If the residents won't sort out the extremists themselves then they're creating a free-fire zone about which they aren't entitled to whine.

MORE:
Silent shock in Iraq (ROBERT H. REID, 3/15/07, Chicago Sun-Times)

Bomb deaths have gone down 30 percent in Baghdad since the U.S.-led security crackdown -- the troop surge -- began a month ago.

Execution-style slayings are down by nearly half. The sound of weapons has become occasional.

There are signs of progress in the campaign to restore order in Iraq, starting with its capital city.

But while many Iraqis are encouraged, they remain skeptical about how long the relative calm will last. Shiite Muslim militias and Sunni Muslim insurgents are still around, perhaps just lying low until the operation is over.

U.S. officials, burned before by optimistic forecasts, are cautious about declaring success.

We won the war for them, but they've got to police themselves. We put two million Americans in jail to get peace on our streets.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 15, 2007 6:35 AM