Operation Chakush

Following on the heels of Operation Ghartse Gar and Operation Leg Tufaan, the British have launched Operation Chakush (Hammer) to continue their push to drive the Taliban away from the river in Helmand Province. From the British MoD:

British soldiers from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), working alongside their Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) counterparts, have launched a further operation to drive the Taliban out of the Upper Gereshk Valley in southern Afghanistan.

The Task Force level offensive, codenamed 'Chakush' or 'Hammer', began in the early hours of Tuesday 24 July 2007 in the area between Heyderabad and Mirmandab, north east of Gereshk.
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A total of 2,000 ISAF and ANSF personnel are taking part in the operation, 1,500 of those being drawn from British forces, namely The Light Dragoons, The First Battalion Grenadier Guards - who are providing operational mentoring to Afghan National Army troops (from 2nd Kandak 3rd Brigade 205 Corps Afghan National Army), the (12 Mechanized) Brigade Reconnaissance Force, 26 Regiment Royal Engineers, 19th Regiment Royal Artillery, the Joint Force EOD group as well as troops from Estonia, Denmark and the US. ISAF helicopters and aircraft are providing support to ground troops.

This area is just to the south of the area I described in this post.

The British and NATO forces are in a fight here. The Taliban have created a base for themselves in the nearby Musa Qala District. Three British soldiers were killed in this area last week.

Last week, NATO forces did have a nice success in the area:

Reliable sources suggest that a senior Taliban leader, Qari Faiz Mohammad, was either killed or seriously wounded by an ISAF security operation July 23 in southern Afghanistan.

“As a result of this successful attack, the Taliban’s networks have suffered another severe setback,” said Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, ISAF spokesperson. “Each successful operation ensures insurgent disruption that gives way for stability operations to take place.”

Bill Roggio adds:

Afghan and ISAF forces clearly have good intelligence on the movement and locations of several senior Taliban leaders, including two members of the Taliban's Shura Majlis, or executive council. Mohammad's death follows the death or captured of several senior Taliban leaders since December 2006. Numerous regional and district-level Taliban commanders have been killed or captured during the same time period.

This was from last Thursday:

Coalition forces have killed 50 Taliban insurgents during clashes in the southern part of Afghanistan, according to the US military.

During a 12-hour-long battle, coalition troops targeted a number of compounds in the Helmand province.

Air support also bombed targeted areas, killing at least 50 insurgents as part of an escalation in security operations.

As I mentioned in a previous post, part of all this frentic action is to gain control of the Kajaki Dam area, which is at the north end of this valley. This dam is an important hydroelectric project which could bring great benefit to the region.

The Taliban are not much interested in beneficence. As an example of what kind of brutes they are, they executed one of the South Korean hostages they are holding over in the eastern part of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's Taliban militia said it shot dead a South Korean hostage late Monday after its deadlines expired for the government to free prisoners in jail.

"We set several deadlines and the Afghan government did not pay attention to our deadlines," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. "Finally tonight at 8:30 we killed one of the Koreans named Sung Sin with AK-47 gunshots."

Allahpundit adds:

They shot him up with an AK-47, assuming they’re telling the truth. Which they probably are: the hostage murdered last week was killed the same way. Who knows what Koranic stricture they’re following that’s telling them to go with the gun instead of the machete, but thank heaven for small favors, I guess.

NATO is fighting the same enemy in this river valley.



Update: This video from the British MoD will give you a good idea of the terrain around Gereshk, and what the British are doing there. (h/t: Afghan Diary)