‘between the dragon and his wrath’, 1994–2017
Despite military commanders and politicians repeatedly stating
that they do not target civilians and make every effort to avoid col lateral
damage, coalition forces in Afghanistan have been responsible for hundreds
of civilian deaths and injuries. During the initial campaign of 2001, three
times in as many weeks u.s. planes destroyed the icrc’s warehouse in
Kabul, which contained vital relief supplies. British military operations
in the Helmand led to some five hundred civilian deaths as well as thou-
sands more internally displaced. In July 2008 an American missile strike
in the Helmand region killed dozens of men, women and children who
were attending a wedding. A few months later around a hundred more
died in an attack on a family compound in ‘Azizabad. In October 2015,
during the battle for Qunduz, a u.s. air strike destroyed a hospital run by
Médecins Sans Frontières, killing at least 42 people, including doctors,
nurses and patients. Of the 8,397 casualties unama documented in the
first half of 2016, 61 per cent were due to insurgency activity, which means
more than 3,300 Afghans died or were injured by the actions of government
secur ity forces or foreign troops. The unending war has had a devastating
impact on Afghans with the Ministry of Health stating that more than 60
per cent of the population of Afghanistan suffer from war-related mental
health problems.
Operation Enduring Freedom’s primary objective was to degrade
al-Qa‘ida’s ability to attack the usa and to punish and, if possible, kill
’Osama bin Laden and the al-Qa‘ida leadership. Within a matter of weeks
bin Laden and those al-Qa‘ida forces that survived the bombing campaign
had fled into Pakistan’s tribal territory. Subsequent deployment of hi-tech
eavesdropping and drones by the u.s. Army Intelligence and the cia further
eroded bin Laden’s capability to plan major attacks on American soil,
although the 2004 Madrid train bombing and the 7/7 attacks in London
were inspired by al-Qa‘ida and some of the perpetrators spent time in
training camps in Pakistan. Yet by the time bin Laden was finally tracked
down and killed, al-Qa‘ida was a shadow of its former self and today it is a
bit player when it comes to the world of Islamic anti-West terrorism. This
victory, however, has been a pyrrhic one, for a new generation of jihadists
have arisen under the banner of Daesh/isil, a Hydra-headed movement
that has a growing presence in Afghanistan as well as the Middle East. As
far as Western nations are concerned, isil poses a far greater threat than
al-Qa‘ida, for hundreds of young Muslims, residents of European nations,
have flocked to join the movement’s war in Syria and Iraq.
President Bush’s decision to oust the Taliban inevitably embroiled the
American-led coalition in Afghanistan’s internal affairs and marked what
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(Nandana)
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