Thanks to US Surge, British Troops Undertake Their Biggest Afghan Operation Since 2001

British soldiers air-assualt into southern Afghanistan (photo: UK Telegraph)Last Friday, 350 British soldiers air-assaulted into one of the most dangerous areas of southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The operation centered around the town of Babaji.

British military commanders say they siezed more than 1.2 tons of poppy seeds—used in making heroin—bomb making equipment and home-made explosives, during searches of local homes.

In addition to being an insurgent stronghold, Babaji is also apparently a drug processing center. From The Guardian:

In a place like Babaji, where the flags of officialdom are the white banners of the Taliban fluttering above key buildings, the usual mixture of grocers and tailors is mixed in with shops peddling drug processing equipment, needles for local addicts, and pharmacies with field dressings and morphine suggesting they do good business with local fighters.

The Brits are hoping to establish semi-permanent combat outposts in the area, which may go a long way toward keeping the Taliban in check down there.

British commanders say that the surge of 21,000 US soldiers into southern Afghanistan, freed them up to undertake massive operations like this one, dubbed Operation Panther’s Claw.

British Colonel Nick Richardson told the UK Scotsman that the “operation has been achieved in many ways due to the arrival of extra US troops into the south of Helmand, which has provided ISAF (the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force] with a massive increase in capability.”

The effects of the increased US military presence will be unfolding all summer long. One major effect is that the Taliban tends to be harder to find. While IED attacks increase, actual, tactical engagement becomes scarce, unless you’re C.J. Chivers.

I’ve been on dozens of patrols in areas that intelligence says should be crawling with Taliban, yet a shot is never fired in anger. This is because in an insurgency, the little guy gets to pick when and where the fight is. The same thing seems to have happened in Panther’s Claw.

Read Jon Boone’s superb story of the operation closely.

The soldiers he was with, seem to have spent most of the week looking for an enemy that barely showed itself. When they did come into close contact, airstrikes were called in.

The surge on Afghanistan will make it easier to secure areas like Babaji. It may also–somewhat counter intuitively–make it harder to find and kill Taliban.