KABUL, June 14, (RTRS): In a radical restructuring of its military command in southern Afghanistan, NATO said on Monday it had split the country’s most violent region in half in a bid to improve security by focusing on smaller geographical areas.
Although the shake-up had been planned for many months, Monday’s announcement marked the official start of a new Regional Command Southwest (RC-SW), reflecting the influx of thousands of new US troops into the region.
The move comes as more than 20,000 foreign and Afghan troops prepare to push the Taleban out of their spiritual heartland in southern Kandahar province in a series of operations expected to last several months.
The bulk of President Barack Obama’s 30,000 US reinforcements pledged in December will be stationed in the violent south as part of US and NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal’s strategy to focus on the insurgents’ strongholds. In a statement on Monday, NATO said the new structure allowed commanders to deliver improved security in the region by focusing on smaller geographical areas and ensuring greater partnering with Afghan forces.
“For military command and control, the sheer amount of forces in the south was more than one command could be in charge of,” said Chief Public Affairs Officer for NATO-led forces, Colonel Wayne Shanks.
Previously, all international forces in the south came under one command — Regional Command South (RC-S) — responsible for six provinces. That command will now control around 30,000 troops in four provinces.
The new southwestern command will be in charge of some 27,000 troops in Helmand, where thousands of US Marines and British forces conducted a major offensive this year, and Nimroz, a largely desert province that shares a long border with Iran.
The shake-up also means the majority of the 9,500 British troops who are based in Helmand, will come under the command of a US Marine general, which had caused some controversy in Britain that they would effectively be ceding control of the province.
British forces moved into Helmand in 2006 where they have been involved in very heavy fighting and almost 300 British troops have been killed since the US-led invasion in late 2001.
Taleban insurgents killed 18 policemen in a series of attacks across Afghanistan in recent days, the interior ministry said on Monday. Ten police were killed in an attack on Sunday on an outpost in Dai Kundi province in central Afghanistan, the ministry said, while six officers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in southern Kandahar on Saturday. Two others died in an attack in the south.
Some 21 militants were killed in the Dai Kundi clash, the ministry said. The Taleban could not be reached for comment.
The Taleban insurgency is at its strongest since the hardline Islamist group was overthrown in 2001, and 38 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan this month alone.