WORLD NEWSDECEMBER 16, 2010.U.S. Revises Rules for Raids Touted in Review
Guidelines on Afghan Nighttime Operations Add Safeguards for Civilians to Ease Tensions With Karzai, Officials Say.Text By ADAM ENTOUS and JULIAN E. BARNES
WASHINGTON—The U.S. military command in Afghanistan has revised secret guidelines for nighttime raids, placing additional safeguards on kill-or-capture missions that are cited in a new White House strategic review as an effective tool in countering the Taliban.
Associated Press
Afghan women and children wait as U.S. Special Operations forces and Afghan soldiers search their home during a night raid in Farah province.
.A senior U.S. official said the new directive by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of coalition forces, was done "out of necessity" to ease tensions with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The nighttime raids, which can imperil civilians, have been a sore point with Afghan leaders.
The shift in tactics comes as the White House on Thursday released a review of Afghan strategy that singled out night raids' usefulness in recent months. In the review, the White House pointed more broadly to tentative progress in the war but said gains were fragile because of Pakistan's failure to eliminate militant havens on its territory and the difficulty of developing effective Afghan security forces.
"This continues to be a very difficult endeavor," President Barack Obama told reporters. "But I can report that…we are on track to achieve our goals."
Mr. Obama said U.S. forces weren't trying to "defeat every last threat" in Afghanistan, nor were troops engaged in "nation-building."
"Rather, we are focused on disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and preventing its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future," he said.
The White House says the current strategy, blending counterinsurgency operations—aimed at gaining the support of Afghan communities—with strikes against insurgents is working, but it hasn't ruled out changes.
U.S. officials credit a sharp increase in the number of raids with putting heavy pressure on insurgents. They say their intention is to keep up the pace of operations, if not accelerate them.
The changes in guidelines for nighttime raids, made in consultation with the White House, are intended to expand protections for civilians and increase coordination with higher-level Afghan government officials—without putting new obstacles in the way of the Special Operations units that carry out the raids, according to officials who have reviewed the new order.
But some officials in Washington said the changes could impose some additional constraints on Special Operations forces that may complicate sensitive mission planning.
"Although there may be added constraints, it is the right thing to do," a senior official said. "We have to make the people believe we are there to help them, and the negative perception the night raids caused was hindering us."
Though conducted in increasingly close partnership with Afghan forces, the night raids have long been opposed by Mr. Karzai and other critics who argue that they alienate villagers and fuel the Taliban insurgency. Afghan officials had no immediate comment on the changes.
Last month, Mr. Obama rebuffed Mr. Karzai's call for halting the raids.
Under the revised tactical directive, which is classified, Special Operations forces are instructed to provide villagers with a list of individuals who have been detained and information about who is holding them. The units will provide receipts to account for any items seized during night operations. Forces will also provide leaders in raided compounds or villages with claim information, enabling civilians caught in the fighting to seek compensation for any damaged property.
In the directive, Gen. Petraeus underlined the importance of coordinating the operations with the Afghans, making it harder for Mr. Karzai and others to argue they weren't involved in the decision-making, officials said.
A senior Obama administration official said the changes made by Gen. Petraeus were "a way of responding to Karzai's concerns" about the raids without giving into his demands to end the operations outright, but said the issue was likely to remain a sore point in relations.
The changes are part of an administration effort to persuade senior Afghan government officials and civilians to accept the raids because of their increasing importance to the administration's strategy.
"We really should have been doing this all along," a senior official said of the changes, designed to show villagers that elite forces are accountable for their actions.
Several directives aimed at protecting civilians were publicized by the U.S. military. In contrast, the changes to the rules for night raids have been kept largely under wraps, reflecting the secretive nature of Special Operations missions as well as the military's reluctance to be seen as making concessions that could curb the raids' effectiveness.
A senior military official in Afghanistan said the changes were mostly administrative and would have no impact on operations.
The issue underlines the difficulty of squaring counterterrorism operations targeting militants with efforts to win local support. "It is a balance, and that balance is something that the commander on the ground is constantly adjusting," Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday.
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