Afghan Army Raises Flag Over Key Town
VOA News 17 February 2010
The Afghan army raised the national flag Wednesday over the main market in the southern town at the center of a major offensive against the Taliban.
Officials said that while troops have captured the main bazaar in Marjah, they are not yet fully in control of the area.
An Afghan military official says Taliban fighters are increasingly using civilians as "human shields" against the Afghan and NATO offensive in Helmand province.
General Mohiudin Ghori says the Taliban have been seen ordering women and children to stand on the roofs of houses while the militants fire weapons around them.
His claim has not been independently confirmed.
NATO says 15 civilians have been killed since the operation began in the town of Marjah five days ago. Amnesty International says thousands of civilians are "caught up in the fighting."
In Kabul Wednesday, senior U.N. official Robert Watkins criticized the military's ties to humanitarian aid, saying U.N. agencies would not participate in NATO's reconstruction plans for Marjah.
Watkins is the deputy special representative of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He did not specifically criticize the Marjah offensive, but said the U.N. did not want to be part of the military's reconstruction process there.
The Marjah offensive is a new NATO-led plan to push out the Taliban and quickly deploy Afghan government officials to run the town and offer needed services.
Last month, eight international aid agencies accused international militaries in Afghanistan of using humanitarian aid as a "non-lethal" weapon of war that is putting Afghan civilians at risk.
The agencies, including Oxfam and ActionAid, said the distribution of aid is heavily biased in favor of areas where there is a strong troop presence, rather than distributed according to need.
About 15,000 Afghan and NATO troops are involved in the Marjah offensive, which is the biggest joint operation since the war in Afghanistan began in late 2001.
NATO commanders have ordered that civilians be protected during the assault on Marjah, a town of 80,000.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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