With snow past their ankles and their view of forbidding mountains blocked by low-slung cloud, US soldiers in Afghanistan’s restive east are taking advantage of a bitter winter to brace for fresh fighting in spring.
The extreme cold has forced a lull in fighting at rugged outpost Zerok in Paktika province, located 20 km (12 miles) from the porous, unruly border with Pakistan, which teems with insurgents linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Afghanistan’s east has emerged as the new focus of attention as worries mount over a narrow strip of land that the United States has dubbed the most dangerous place in the world. NATO-led forces are currently in the process of handing over control of security to the Afghans ahead of a planned exodus of foreign combat troops to be completed by the end of 2014. But officials in the US military and Afghan government are increasingly concerned by the challenge of securing the 2,640 km border that many frontline soldiers believe is too rugged to hold. Failing to do so would allow more militants to cross over, complicating peace efforts in Afghanistan. Ringed by mountains dotted with evergreen trees, Zerok is one of a series of remote outposts that form the first line of defence against insurgents crossing the border into Afghanistan to launch attacks, according to US and Afghan officials.
“It is that first layer where the insurgents are met by a security element that stops their flow,” said Captain Craig Halstead, commander of the US Army’s Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment at Zerok. By training the Afghan army and police, who have been patrolling the frozen peaks alongside his own troops, he hopes that when fighting renews with the March thaw, the Afghans will have absorbed enough for insurgents to find a tougher, more disciplined opponent. But US officers are wary of the hurdles still ahead.
“What the (Afghan army is) not very good at is logistics, planning at levels higher than company (30-60 men),” said Major Joseph Buccino, a spokesman for the US forces in Paktika, where around 3,400 American soldiers are currently serving. This will drop to just over 3,000 before the summer fighting season.
American soldiers at Zerok said their Afghan partners have only recently started taking the initiative when planning operations, and handing orders down to soldiers on the ground is still relatively new for them. Drug use, hastily trained ranks and widespread corruption are hindering the Afghan police and army nationally, some Afghan and US officials say. Halstead, who has been at Zerok since July, said another major difficulty is the support local Afghans give to the insurgency, often through fear of militant reprisals. “The people sometimes don’t have a choice, because of intimidation, threats, and the coercive tactics insurgents can use against them,” he said. “We have some serious cross-border threats. We keep pushing Kabul to deal with this effectively,” Nangarhar deputy governor Mohammad Hanif Gardiwal told visiting reporters, saying security forces lacked heavy weapons to counter the insurgents.
