The commander of US Marines in southern Afghanistan said Wednesday there was an urgent need for more Afghan security forces as well as civilian experts to back up a major offensive against Taliban insurgents.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The fact of the matter is we don't have enough Afghan forces, and I'd like more," Brigadier General Larry Nicholson told reporters in a teleconference.
A week after 4,000 Marines launched a large-scale operation against insurgents in Taliban strongholds in the Helmand River valley, only about 650 Afghan security forces were accompanying the US troops, Nicholson said.
"Imagine if I had 4,000 Marines with 4,000 Afghan forces. I mean, it would not even be comparable to even the relative success that we've had over these first seven days," the general said from Camp Leatherneck, a Marine base in Helmand province.
He said he hoped to eventually have an Afghan battalion for every US Marine battalion and that the US military and Kabul government were working to deploy more Afghan forces to the south while expanding the country's army and police forces.
"But the bottom line answer is, I'd like more, I need more," he said.
The general said he was satisfied he had enough US troops for the moment.
But he said more Afghan security forces would make US troops more effective, as the goal of the coalition mission was to win the trust and confidence of the population.
The Afghan troops "see things we'll never see," Nicholson said.
"They understand politically what's going on in an area that we'll just never get, no matter how much cultural training our guys get."
It also was crucial to increase the number of US civilian experts in the south to bring economic development to Afghan villages and towns, he said.
"I'd like to get more, and I know more are coming," Nicholson said.
More Afghan forces and civilian experts would "empower us," he added.
There were five civilians from the US government serving in the south and five more were due to arrive by September, said Kael Weston, a State Department official who also spoke at the briefing from Helmand.
The American civilian development experts were working with a British-led reconstruction team of about 100, he said.
The numbers appeared to fall far short of the civilian "surge" promised by President Barack Obama's administration when it rolled out its new strategy for the Afghan war.
Weston said the numbers might appear low but that the civilians on the ground had extensive knowledge and budget resources at their disposal.
Seven days after the launch of the Marine campaign in the south, Nicholson said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the operation — one of the biggest since US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.
The Marines were holding key insurgent centers after relatively little resistance with about 10 incidents of combat and no civilian casualties so far, he said.
"We've taken a hell of a large swath of Taliban heartland away from them," he said.
The general said the Taliban would likely soon launch counter-attacks to assert control of the province, a center for the poppy crop and lucrative opium trade that helps finance the insurgency.
"They have gone to ground," he said of the Taliban.
"This enemy is not going to just stay away. This area is far too valuable, far too important to them."
A primary threat to coalition troops was the intense heat, he added. "It's just hot as fire down there."
As thousands of Marines moved in throughout Helmand province, they had orders to meet with tribal leaders and village elders to forge ties to the local population, Nicholson said.
The Marines have pushed far down the Helmand River valley, setting up in the towns of Nawa and Garmsir and taking control of Khanishin in the far south towards Pakistan.
After US forces moved in to Khanishin, the Afghan governor and an Afghan commander on Wednesday raised the Afghan national flag over the town's 18th century castle.
Nicholson said it was the first time in many years the flag had flown over the town.
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