RINF.COM: EL ALTERNATIVA DE LAS NOTICIAS QUE SE ROMPE
Viernes 1 de agosto de 2008
RINF.COM: EL ALTERNATIVA DE LAS NOTICIAS QUE SE ROMPE
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La guerra afgana del aire crece en intensidad
Miércoles 30 de julio de 2008 Discuta este informe en los foros de RINF > WASHINGTON - airstrikes diarios por los E.E.U.U. y los combatiente-bombarderos aliados en Afganistán casi han doblado desde el verano pasado, según los E.E.U.U. Los datos de la fuerza aérea, una tendencia que refleja aumentaron ataques insurgentes pero también preocupaciones de los aumentos por víctimas civiles. La confianza cada vez mayor en airstrikes por los E.E.U.U. los comandantes en Afganistán aparecen marcar una vuelta en el curso de la guerra. Respondiendo a las peticiones de los comandantes de tierra, el excedente aliado del avión que la última semana tiene pummeled las blancos enemigas de la tierra al promedio de 68 por un día a través de Afganistán, cayendo 500 - y las bombas dirigidas 2.000 libras y los enemigo de fuerza que castigaban con el fuego del cañón, según informes diarios de la huelga de la fuerza aérea. Hace un año, la fuerza aérea era grabación cerca de 35 airstrikes por día en Afganistán. Aunque la fuerza aérea toma lo que dice es medidas exhaustivas de evitar muertes accidentales, las víctimas civiles de airstrikes tienen claveteado dos veces este año, de ningunos en enero a 23 de marcha a 60 hasta ahora este mes, según nuevos, inéditos datos del orujo Garlasco, jefe que apunta anterior del investigador de la guardia de los derechos humanos para el personal común del pentágono. los insurrectos Taliban-conducidos están atacando en números significativos y el permanecer para luchar más bien que el acoplamiento a tradicional golpear-y-funcionan táctica del guerrilla, según los E.E.U.U. comandantes. En varios incidentes recientes, los E.E.U.U. y las tropas aliadas prevalecieron en batallas echadas solamente después que los combatiente-bombarderos demostrados hasta ráfaga los insurrectos. El papel cada vez mayor de la energía de aire sugiere que la guerra requerirá más que las tropas adicionales recomendadas cerca Presidente Bush y ambos candidatos presidenciales. Puede ser que requiera avión servido y más sin tripulación de una fuerza aérea y de una marina de guerra ya estiradas demasiado. Y el mayor uso de la energía de aire daría lugar probablemente a víctimas más civiles, en un conflicto en el cual la lealtad local que gana se considera la llave al éxito. El otoño pasado, presidente afgano Hamid Karzai, respondiendo al peaje civil de levantamiento de la muerte de los airstrikes, exigidos público que los Estados Unidos encuentran un alternativa. Pero airstrikes crecientes solamente. Los comandantes aliados todavía están investigando un airstrike del 6 de julio que el gobierno afgano diga mató a 47 civiles en su manera a una boda. “Lamentamos profundamente cualquier incidente donde dañan a los civiles,” dijimos a capitán real de la marina de guerra. Mike Finney, portavoz para los E.E.U.U. - coalición militar conducida en Afganistán. `Enemigo emboldened'But the Air Force says it is only responding to the intensity of fighting on the ground. “Let’s face it, the enemy is more emboldened,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Douglas L. Raaberg, deputy commander of air operations in the region. Raaberg is a B-1 bomber pilot who has flown strike missions over Afghanistan as recently as last week. “The Taliban, when they have an opportunity to take a stand, they are doing that,” he said in a telephone interview from the region. Coalition aircraft have doubled the number of hours they spend each day on airborne “armed overwatch” of U.S. and allied convoys and other operations, he said. He acknowledged that strike missions also have doubled as ground commanders increasingly request air support. To meet the demand, allied air crews are flying more sorties each day, and more U.S. aircraft are on station with the recent diversion of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln from Iraq operations to supporting operations in Afghanistan. “We are shifting assets as needed to make sure we don’t leave [ground forces] uncovered,” Raaberg said. But the Air Force has to scramble to meet unexpected demand. A Taliban attack July 13, for example, nearly overran a remote U.S. and Afghan outpost near the Pakistani border. Insurgents held the upper hand in combat until an Air Force B-1 bomber flew in to drop 2,000-pound bombs, an unmanned Predator fired a Hellfire missile and other strike aircraft dropped bombs and strafed the enemy with cannon. The insurgents retreated, leaving nine American soldiers dead. “The only reason they weren’t completely overrun was air power, and that’s the first time that has happened” in the Afghan war, said John McCreary, who retired in 2006 as a senior intelligence analyst for the Pentagon’s Joint Staff. “Coalition ground forces are not winning every battle, but they are winning every battle where they have air support,” said McCreary, who follows Afghanistan closely and still assembles a daily open-source intelligence report. On July 20, Raaberg was piloting a B-1 bomber over Afghanistan when he was redirected to attack Taliban forces gathering for an assault on a U.S. forward operating base in Kunar province, in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan. “They started attacking within half an hour of when I got there,” Raaberg recalled. He said U.S. artillery fired at the enemy, followed by airstrikes, followed by more artillery and more airstrikes, “until we ran out of bombs.” Defeating such Taliban attacks, he said, is “not so much air [power] saving the day, it’s air combined with ground forces combined with our coalition partners. We’re trying to use everything.” Analysts who have studied casualty patterns in Afghanistan say that the vast majority are caused, deliberately or not, by the Taliban and other insurgents. According to Human Rights Watch, a nonpartisan international research organization, 929 Afghan civilians were killed in the fighting in 2006. Of those, 699 were killed by the Taliban and 230 by U.S. or coalition forces, including 116 by airstrikes. In 2007, 1,633 Afghan civilians died in the fighting, with 950 killed by the Taliban and 434 by U.S. and coalition forces, according to data provided by Garlasco. The rest died under unclear or unknown circumstances, he said. But while the number killed by U.S. or coalition ground forces stayed about the same, those killed by airstrikes more than doubled, to 321. A key reason for the increase is that the Taliban are “shielding” their fighters among Afghanistan’s civilian population, Garlasco said. “They actually go into peoples’ homes, force them to stay there during a battle, force them to build defensive trenches for them - these are true Geneva Conventions violations,” Garlasco said. Raaberg said the Air Force will not attack insurgents shielding themselves among civilians “and the enemy knows that.” Unplanned strikesBut Garlasco said the Air Force has not taken as much care with its quick-reaction airstrike missions as it has with those planned in detail and reviewed by intelligence analysts and lawyers at the U.S. regional air operations headquarters in Qatar. “In their planned airstrikes, they have virtually eliminated the danger of civilian casualties,” Garlasco said. “It is in the unplanned airstrikes that you’re seeing almost all of the civilian casualties.” Such unplanned missions often involve urgent calls to support U.S. and allied troops who unexpectedly engage in battle. Or an unmanned surveillance plane might find a group of people mistakenly identified by targeters as insurgents. Raaberg said that for unplanned missions - such as the one in which he participated July 20 - the air command dispatches not just strike aircraft but intelligence and command aircraft, all in close coordination with ground commanders and tactical air controllers. “It’s a painstaking effort,” he said. If insurgents are mixed in with civilians, “we will wait them out if we can” or ask the ground commander to flush them out. But U.S. and allied troops in trouble take precedence. “My hat’s off to the ones on the ground,” Raaberg said. “There’s nothing more uncomfortable than to hear on the radio mortars and grenades going off. You’ve got to go help them.” Discuss this report in the RINF forums > Have Your Say: Afghan air war grows in intensity This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 10:45 pm and is filed under War & Terrorism News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. |
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