The Afpak Channel | By Katherine Tiedemann | 17 February 2010
Daily brief: Obama to convene Afghan war council today

As coalition operations in the southern Afghan town of Marjah enter their fifth day, U.S. President Barack Obama is holding a meeting of his national security advisers in the White House Situation Room today to discuss Operation Moshtarak (AFP). Yesterday, U.S. and Afghan troops took control of several key areas in Marjah, moving into a police station and the ruins of a former government center where authorities hope to rebuild a municipal facility (WSJ, Wash Post). Sporadic gun battles broke out across the city’s empty streets yesterday as coalition forces continue to clear the area, and Marines are planning to bring 80 Afghan paramilitaries to patrol (ABC, Wash Post).

The brigade commander for Afghan troops in the Marjah offensive said that Taliban militants are using civilians as “human shields” there, “fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children… trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians” (BBC, AP). And NATO forces have resumed using a type of rocket that killed as many as 12 civilians on Sunday, after determining that the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) was not, as originally stated, defective and did hit the intended target (Reuters, BBC). C. J. Chivers and Rod Nordland report on the follow-up with the families and elders of those killed in the Sunday strike (NYT, Pajhwok).

Taliban reconciliation with the government is an important element of the Afghan and U.S. strategies in Afghanistan, and before the January 28 conference in London, representatives from Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government and from the Taliban reportedly met on a resort island in the Indian Ocean island nation of the Maldives (AFP). A Maldives government spokesman said there were delegations of 11 members each, the Taliban side including the son of Afghan insurgent commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, engaged in three days of face-to-face talks (AP).

Source: The Afpak Channel