USS Eisenhower, 'critical component' in anti-Taliban fight

NATO announces death of soldier in Afghanistan
Kabul (AFP) May 30, 2010 - A foreign soldier was killed on Sunday fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, NATO said. The soldier, whose nationality was not revealed, died following a small arms attack, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said. The death brings to 222 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to an AFP count based on a tally kept by the independent icasualties.org website, compared to a 2009 total of 520. NATO and the US have 130,000 troops in Afghanistan, with another 20,000 set for deployment in coming months, mostly to the south where military planners are aiming to squeeze the Taliban out of their fiefdom.

Investigation into civilian Afghan deaths blames human error
Kabul (AFP) May 29, 2010 - Human error was blamed Saturday for a missile and rocket attack by US forces on vehicles in war-torn Afghanistan that resulted in the death of 23 civilians, a military statement said. The incident on February 21 sparked widespread anger at the presence of international troops in Afghanistan, and an apology from the commander of NATO forces in the country, US General Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal has made it a tenet of his counter-insurgency strategy in fighting a Taliban insurgency that civilian casualties be kept to a minimum. The report found that a convoy of "three vehicles carrying more than 30 civilians were mistaken for an insurgent convoy and engaged by coalition aircraft".

The mistake was made in analysing images taken by unmanned drones, it said. Information that the vehicles were carrying anything other than civilians -- rather than militants racing to reinforce Taliban engaged in battle nearby -- was "ignored or downplayed", it said. "The ground force commander lacked a clear understanding of who was in the vehicles, the location, direction of travel and likely course of action of those vehicles. "Poorly functioning higher headquarters command posts failed to provide the ground force commander with the evidence and analysis that the vehicles were not a hostile threat," it said. Citing "several shortcomings in training, communication and decision-making," the ISAF statement said McChrystal had reprimanded four senior and two junior officers. The incident, in an area of central Daykundi province that was carved out of Uruzgan province, killed four women and a child, and was the third such mistaken bombing raid in Afghanistan in a week.

McChrystal's apology to President Hamid Karzai in person, and to the Afghan people in a televised broadcast, was swift but failed to quell deep concern over civilian deaths and injuries in the ongoing war against the Taliban. Civilian casualties are an incendiary issue in Afghanistan, and are often used by Karzai and the Taliban alike for political ends, even though most are caused by the insurgents. The United Nations said in a report that the number of civilians killed in the Afghan war jumped last year to 2,412, making 2009 the deadliest year for ordinary Afghans since the US-led invasion. By comparison, 2,118 civilians were killed in 2008. The UN report said 67 percent of last year's civilian deaths, or 1,630, were in insurgent attacks, while pro-government forces including NATO and US troops were responsible for 25 percent, or 596 civilian deaths last year.

by Staff Writers
Onboard Uss Dwight D. Eisenhower In The Arabian Sea (AFP) May 30, 2010
The planes coming in from missions over Afghanistan for a night landing touch down with a thud, the runway so short and narrow that there is no room for error.

It's the deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, a US Navy aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea that provides air support for coalition forces fighting Islamic Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

The floating airport, or the "city at sea" as its captain Dee L. Mewbourne likes to call it, provides nearly a third of air missions against the Taliban.

"We are providing almost daily support to the Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan," said the commander of the Carrier Strike Group Eight, Rear Admiral Phil Davidson.

"We are a critical component of the total fight."

The Nimitz-class USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is affectionately known as Ike, the nickname of the 34th US president after which it was named, and is home to 61 planes, including four squadrons of F-18s.

Of the nearly 5,000 personnel aboard, there are 1,400 air-wing staff.

Several times a day warplanes thunder on the flight deck before being catapulted into the sky on regular sorties, heading north across Pakistan for operations in Afghanistan.

They land with a thud, a sparking tail-hook scratching the deck in search of a trap wire that stops the speeding planes with a jolt, and the glowing fireballs of the plane's twin engines dying out in a split second. The "birds," as they are called, are home.

Between 55 to 60 sorties are conducted daily, said Captain Roy J Kelley, commander of the carrier's Air Wing Seven, with many heading to Afghanistan. Ike's previous deployment to the Gulf was between October 2006 and May 2007, also in support of troops in Afghanistan.

The jet noise during six-hour missions over Afghanistan is sometimes enough to scare the militants and send them scurrying, according to Lieutenant Nicole Johnson, who flies her F-18 Hornet three times a week on missions over the country.

"We make sure we've got all our basics covered" before taking out a target, added Johnson, 30, who has been flying an F-18 for about three years, and is on her second deployment to the region.

Kelley said his force's fire engagements represented only about 10 percent of what was used in the previous deployment. It is "significantly reduced," he said, as Eisenhower approaches the end of its deployment in mid-summer.

This appears to be a result of a change in strategy, "shifting from a focus on trying to kill the bad guys to make sure that we are doing everything we can to support the Afghan people and make sure that their protection is the number-one priority," according to Kelley.

Eisenhower's presence also "provides security and stability to this area of the world," said the captain, as his ship floated south of Iran -- a main US foe -- and near Gulf Arab countries that are the main US allies in the region.

"Our relationship with these countries has never been closer," the commander of the strike group answered cautiously to a question about Ike's role in providing protection for the oil-rich states in case of a showdown with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions.

He insisted Eisenhower's encounters with the Iranian navy in international waters were "general routine" and that "there is no tension." That included an April incident in which an Iranian warplane flew within one kilometre (0.6 mile) from the ship.

"That's just another routine interaction ... no different if it was any other navy," he said in a windowless office, closed to daylight like most of the ship's compartments.

On the 1,092 foot (331 metre) flight deck, the blaze from the F-18s' engines adds to the hardship of staff already coping with a scorching sun and stifling humidity.

"When we left Norfolk (in the United States) it was snowing. We got here and it was like -- 'oh my God, it's hot,'" said one sailor.

The majority of the personnel run the "city" from the air-conditioned indoors, and those who want sunlight must volunteer for the twice-daily deck walk to clean the runway from debris left by the jets.

Ike will be replaced by the USS Harry S. Truman when it leaves in July.

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Karzai's brother to scale back role in Kandahar: NATO
Washington (AFP) May 26, 2010
NATO commanders expect the controversial brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to "stand out of the way" and play a less important role in Kandahar province, a top general said Wednesday. The NATO-led mission's strategy in the pivotal Kandahar region aims to have Ahmed Wali Karzai, widely accused of corruption, gradually cede power to the governor of the province, Tooryalai Wesa, said Bri ... read more

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