In April US drops 460 bombs or missiles on Afgfhanistan

American warplanes in April dropped more weapons on Afghanistan than in any single month since 2012. The increase in use of air power is in part due to an effort by the US to wipe out the Islamic State(IS) presence in Afghanistan.

The IS is mainly in an eastern province near the border but has carried out terror attacks further afield. The US wants to wipe the group out if possible. Attacks by the US included dropping the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) on their hideouts in the mountains near the border. However, there are still clashes with the group in the area.

The US dropped 460 bombs, missiles, or other ordnance in April. This is more than twice the 203 weapons that were dropped during the month of March. It is more than seven times what were dropped during April of last year. Trump is currently still considering a proposal from his top military advisers that would have him send another 3,000 to 5,000 troops to Afghanistan. At present there are about 8,4000 together with 6,500 coalition troops in Afghanistan most of whom are there to train and support Afghan security forces. However, some US special forces are engaged in anti-terror attacks. The additional troops could also help increase air support as defense of Afghan positions often relies on trained air controllers on the ground.

The last time when more weapons were dropped in August of 2012 there were 80,000 US troops still in Afghanistan in a combat role. The total number of weapons released this year to the end of April were 917. In all of 2016 there were 1,337 and in 2015 the first year of the non-combat mission there were 947. US military spokesperson Captain Bill Salvin said of the increased activity: "The two main reasons are this is the first spring fighting season since the expanded authorities were granted. And General Nicholson has stated the goal to eliminate ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017, which has required more offensive operations and strategic effects support."

The reported number did not include strikes by the US army attack helicopters. However, Salvin said that in all US forces had conducted 898 "kinetic strikes" in the first four months of 2017 compared to less than 300 in the same period of 2016. The number of counter-terrorism strikes had also increased to 92 compared with just 55 in March. There were 296 strikes designed to support Afghan forces in April as compared with just 115 in March. There were also 62 times US aircraft went to provide "strategic effects" for Afghan forces compared to only 6 times in March. The increased activity has resulted in increased reports of civilian deaths. During the first quarter of 2017, 72 civilians were killed as well as 76 wounded by aerial operations an increase from only 8 dead and 21 wounded during the same period last year. according to the UN.

There appears to be division within the Trump administration with some reluctant to spend more money and send more troops into a war that has lasted 16 years and which there is little chance of winning even with more troops. One alternative would be to try and do more with those troops that are in the country now. The Afghan forces are suffering multiple casualties and setbacks.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, told reporters that the Trump administration's policy review on Afghanistan is still a work in progress and that it could be another two weeks at least before something would be presented to Trump. A Bloomberg article notes: " One option Trump is weighing would add 5,000 troops. But that could increase military casualties without long-term gains in a country that has stymied foreign militaries dating back at least to the British occupation of the 1800s." Another commentator Dan Feldman who is a former State Department special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan said: “We’ll have a small fraction of the total troop strength we had at their apex a few years ago, close to 100,000 U.S. troops and 140,000 total international forces. If that didn’t achieve stability in Afghanistan, how will this modest increase help break the stalemate?"

An anonymous UK official said that his country would contribute more troops to a non-combat effort. Overall numbers to be sent will be discussed in another NATO meeting in June according to the official. It appears that any increased numbers approved are unlikely to be enough to defeat the Taliban.

US military officials claim they will defeat Islamic State in Afghanistan in 2017

United States military officials said that US forces in Afghanistan would be upping the fight against ISIS-K or the Islamic State (IS), Khorasan Province branch, and are determined to defeat the group this year.

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U.S. Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesperson for the Resolute Support headquarters in the capital Kabul told the Voice of America Afghan service: "Our goal in 2017 is to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan." The IS group has taken mountainous areas in the border province of Khorasan. However, the Afghan government claims that attacks have reduced the group's strength from several thousand fighters to under a thousand. The number of districts under IS control has been reduced from ten to less than five.

Salvin claimed: "In 2016, we believed that year began with about 3,000 or so ISIS-K members in about 12 districts in southern Nangarhar," Salvin said. "Right now, we believe there are about 600 ISIS-K members in two or three districts in southern Nangarhar."

Nevertheless, the IS has shown it can launch attacks in Kabul the capital and elsewhere in the country, General John Nicholson the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The IS claimed a recent attack on March 8th on a military hospital in Kabul that killed at least 31 people. General Nicholson has asked that several thousand more U.S. troops be sent to Afghanistan.Michael Kugelman, a South Asia specialist at the Woodrow Willson Center in Washington DC cautioned:"Ultimately, we should applaud U.S. efforts to cut down the presence of IS fighters in Afghanistan. But the broader problem is the ideologies of hate that keep IS strong. Taking aim at the ideological drivers of IS will be very difficult. The Afghanistan-Pakistan region is a magnet for militancy, and there's no reason why the hundreds of IS fighters that have been lost won't be replaced. There are deeper issues that need to be addressed — such as why IS managed to develop a presence in Afghanistan in the first place — and these are issues that can't be addressed by the U.S. military."

Although the extensive combat mission of the U.S. and allies in Afghanistan has long ended there are still about 8,400 U.S. troops left in Afghanistan who aid Afghan forces and the U.S. also provides extensive air support in carrying out cooperative counter-terrorism operations. Captain Salvin said that the U.S. approach in Afghanistan to fighting the IS was two-pronged: "The first is the unilateral U.S. counterterrorism mission called Operation Freedom, and that is where we will conduct the operations against terrorist groups like ISIS-K on our own. The other way that we are attacking ISIS-K is in partnered operations with the Afghan special forces. They have had a great success in fighting ISIS-K, especially over the last month or so."

The Afghan government believes that the Trump administration will grant General Nicholson's request for several thousand more U.S. troops. The Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani said: "We stand confident that the new U.S. administration under President [Donald] Trump will remain strategically engaged and continue its support." Captain Salvin predicted that in 2017 the U.S. together with the Afghans would defeat the IS: "We believe that they are stronger going into 2017 than they were when they finished 2016. So while we do believe it will be a challenging year, we believe that the Afghan forces will be successful, and we will be here to be their partners."

It took some time before the U.S. even admitted that the IS was operating in Afghanistan. Subsequently, the Afghan government announced at least twice in 2016 that they had achieved "total victory" over the IS. The group is often temporarily driven from an area only to reappear quite soon. The group often relocates when there is an offensive against them allowing most to escape.

The talk of defeating the IS ignores the fact that the main rebel group in Afghanistan are the Taliban and they are capturing more and more areas. Most recently the Taliban captured the key district of Sangin in the southern province of Helmand. A U.S. spokesperson played down the development:A spokesman for the American military, Capt. William K. Salvin, played down the development, saying Afghan security forces were still in the district and had merely moved its seat of government. “They repositioned the district center,” he said. “This move to a new district center has been planned for some time.

The Taliban overran government offices in the city of Sangin. The area was handed over to Afghan forces back in 2013 after a battle that saw more U.S. and British marines killed than in any other district in Afghanistan. The present takeover has taken place in spite of an extensive U.S. bombing campaign and the support of U.S. Special Operations soldiers. The Islamic State is a much lesser problem than the Taliban which is occupying more and more territory in many parts of Afghanistan especially the south.

Joint US Afghan raid kills 22 civilians in Afghanistan

Both Afghan officials and local residents claim that 22 civilians mostly women and children were killed in a joint U.S., Afghan operation carried out in the southern province of Helmand.

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Jabar Qahraman , the presidential envoy for security in Helmand Province, said the raid against the Taliban killed 13 people from one family and nine from another. Qaraman said: “We are saddened to hear the news of civilians being killed. When the Taliban use civilians as their shield against security forces, such incidents occur.” The United States has yet to admit that there were civilian casualties:

U.S. Navy Cpt. Bill Salvin, a military spokesman, said “we are working diligently to determine whether civilians were killed or injured as a result of U.S. airstrikes” carried out to support Afghan forces in and around Sangin. The investigation is “continuing and has not reached any conclusions,” he added in a written statement.The U.S. does not usually admit at first that there were civilian casualties and does so only when evidence make the casualties difficult to deny. The UN mission in Afghanistan was less cautious as it expressed grave concern after initial inquiries showed the international forces killed at least 18 civilians nearly all women and children. Kareem Atal, the head of the provincial council in Helmand, said a man, two women and two children who were wounded in the raid have been brought to Lashkar Gah the capital for treatment.

Hameed Gul a local resident who lost nine members of his family claimed it was all lies that they were attacking the Taliban he told the Associated Press. Helmand province has seen several months of heavy fighting with the Taliban. The Taliban have targeted the capital Lashkar Gah several times with suicide attacks. On Saturday, a suicide bomber targeting soldiers killed at least seven people.

General Nicholson the commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan claims that the US needs to commit several thousand more troops to Afghanistan to break what he calls the stalemate there. It is questionable that there is a stalemate as the Taliban appear to be gaining ground. Nicholson told the Senate armed services committee that there was a "shortfall of a few thousand".

About 8,600 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan since the combat mission ended. The situation is now complicated by the rise of the Islamic State(IS) in Afghanistan. A recent attack claimed by the IS near the supreme court in Kabul killed at least 20 people.

So far, U.S. president Trump has had little to say about Afghanistan but on Thursday he spoke by telephone with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani. Trump was said to have stressed the importance of the U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership. A White House statement also said:  “The leaders discussed opportunities to strengthen the bilateral relationship in areas such as security, counter-terrorism co-operation and economic development.” When Nicholson was asked if Trump would be more willing than Obama to take into account the security situation in Afghanistan in deciding on troop commitment General Nicholson replied: “Yes, sir.” The general also suggested that US defense secretary James Mattis might visit Afghanistan in coming weeks.

General Nicholson in written testimony also criticized Russia whom he claimed was strengthening the Taliban and undermining NATO. In contrast, recent remarks by former president Karzai criticize the U.S. and claim that relations of Afghanistan with big powers and neighbors were better while he was president.According to Karzai, there was a thaw in the relations between world powers in Afghanistan when he was serving as president. But now, the ties between these countries are deteriorating.“I told President (Vladimir) Putin that I have worries about Afghanistan, the way the United States and the western allies are conducting the war on terror is not leading us to decrease extremism in our region or in Afghanistan, in fact we see rising extremism in Afghanistan in spite of the massive sacrifices and loss of resources,” said Karzai.There appears no sign so far that Trump is doing anything to repay Russia for its support. If Trump commits more U.S. troops to Afghanistan he will not be keeping his campaign promises not to get the U.S. involved in costly wars but will be following Republican and Democratic hawks in dragging the U.S. even deeper into the conflict once again.