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NATO targets Taliban buildup

Operation Achilles aims to woo a hostile Afghan population in an opium-producing region.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 7, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - In its largest offensive yet, thousands of NATO troops moved Tuesday into the mountains of southern Afghanistan where hundreds of hardcore Taliban insurgents hold sway - an operation in the world's biggest opium-producing region aimed at winning over a population long supportive of militant fighters.

Comprising 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan troops, Operation Achilles marks the start of NATO's major spring military action, said Col. Tom Collins, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

NATO hopes it can establish security among a population now harboring Taliban militants, foreign fighters and drug traffickers, and rid the region of its shadow Taliban government. That would allow President Hamid Karzai's administration to make its first move into a lawless region overflowing with the poppies funding the Taliban insurgency.

"What you are going to see in the coming weeks is the enemy reacting to the strategic initiative of the government of Afghanistan and the (NATO) forces it's partnered with," Collins said.

"It is us moving into (Taliban) areas, not the other way around."

The offensive is NATO's largest-ever in the country. But it involves only half the number of soldiers that fought in a U.S. offensive in the same region just nine months ago, when some 11,000 U.S.-led troops attacked fighters in northern Helmand province during Operation Mountain Thrust.

Collins said NATO was working closely with the government to prevent civilian casualties, which have dogged military operations here and caused an outcry by Karzai and other Afghans. Up to 20 civilian deaths in three incidents Sunday and Monday can be attributed to U.S. or NATO military action, Afghan officials and witnesses say.

Taliban says it has kidnapped reporter

ROME - The Italian newspaper La Repubblica said it has lost contact with its reporter in Afghanistan, and a spokesman for the Taliban said Tuesday the group had captured a man posing as a journalist who previously worked for the paper. La Repubblica has had no contact with Daniele Mastrogiacomo since Sunday, the ministry said.

[Last modified March 7, 2007, 01:15:48]