In Afghanistan occupying imperialist forces and puppet government troops have launched a major exercise to prevent the spring offensive by the Afghan resistance. Code-named Achilles, the operation has been focused on Helmand Province in the south and in the western part of the country towards the Iranian border. Both the US and Britain have claimed that Iran is supplying weapons to the resistance, but the move is no doubt associated with preparing for a possible strike on Iran.
Controlled by US commanders, Operation Achilles has involved 4,500 troops backed by air strikes and Apache helicopters. The imperialists claim to have killed 145 resistance fighters in battles in Shindbad and the Sangin Valley and to have killed the main Taliban leader in the area. They always describe all resistance fighters as Taliban but the reality is that large numbers of the Afghan people now support the resistance because of the poverty and misery they are suffering under the corrupt puppet regime of Hamid Karzai and because of the war crimes committed by the occupying forces. In March, US forces went on a killing spree after one of their vehicles was hit by a suicide bomb. They fired indiscriminately at anyone fleeing the scene. Ten civilians were killed, including a four-year-old girl, a baby boy and three elderly villagers, and 33 were wounded. The US military banned media reports of the event. In the US the family Sergeant Patrick Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2004, accused the Pentagon of lying about his death. The Pentagon had said Sgt Tillman had died in a heroic action when in fact he had been killed by US forces in a so-called ‘friendly fire’ incident.
British troops in Helmand have been trying to clear resistance fighters from the poppy growing area. Eradication of the heroin industry was used by the imperialists as one justification for their occupation of the country and they claim the resistance is funded by opium sales. But at the end of April a British spokesman issued an advertisement to local people saying it was all right for them to grow poppies. The advert had to be hastily revoked after complaints from the Afghan government. However, of the top 25 opium smugglers in Afghanistan, at least three are known to be members of that government and both police and government officials take bribes to turn a blind eye to the drugs trade. Last year poppy cultivation was up by 59%. Some 2.9 million Afghanis, 13% of the population, are involved. The trade supplies 90% of the world’s heroin, worth £1.2 billion to the drug barons. Rich farmers will pay bribes of £200 per hectare to be allowed to continue growing poppies. Poor Afghanis, however, have no money and use opium as cash. Save the Children say 40% of Afghan children are malnourished. Less than half have access to safe water. The infant mortality rate at 257 deaths per thousand live births is the second worst in the world. One in six Afghan women die in childbirth.
Jim Craven
FRFI 197 June / July 2007
