Saturday September 3, 2016
Kabul (BNA) Following, U.S. forces air raids in Helmand province’s Nadi Ali district, reportedly left many Afghan army forces killed, the ministry of defense (MoD) while rejecting the report said, ‘all anti-insurgency operations are being conducted in coordination with Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
Mohammad Radmanish, deputy spokesperson to MoD said, ‘as you know, the ministry of defense needs equipped air force.’ Unfortunately, we don’t access advanced technology so we are able to conduct military operations, therefore, the U.S. and NATO forces cooperate with us in this regard, he further said. Rejecting the report that many Afghan army forces had been allegedly killed in recent U.S. air raid in Nadi Ali, Radmanish said, ‘mopping up operations in such areas are being jointly conducted with U.S. air force.’ In the operation launched in Nadi Ali, no Taliban prison has been targeted, but one of their offices in the district had been destroyed, Radmanish further said.
Majority of the airstrikes are conducted in cooperation with U.S. and NATO forces, and the report on killing a number of Afghan security forces is baseless, you might have heard the assertions of the Helmand province’s local authorities in the respect, Radmanish continued.
Pointing to Afghan security forces achievements, Radmanish said it should me mentioned that in recent operations conducted in a number of insecure provinces and districts, the ANSF obtained considerable successes.
Calling mine plantation of the Taliban, using civilians’ houses and children as shelter as main challenges faced by the ANSF in battlefields, he said we are making effort not to harm the civilians during military operations, however, the insurgents have always used public places to reach their goals—a move that has caused to slow down our operations.
The government of Afghanistan has always stressed that during military operations, human rights should not be violated, Radmanish went on to say. Replying a question on air force preparations to safe the civilians’ live during operations, Radmanish said, ‘the air personnel has legally and technically trained well and they never use heavy weaponries where the civilians are living.’ Jamal Farahmand, a military expert and a former general said, ‘unfortunately, one of the main issues have been civilian casualties over the last fourteen years and it is still continuing.’
This is while that over the last fourteen years, no considerable attention has been paid in air forces section, but we hope the donor countries pay serious heed in the respect and equip the Afghan air force with modern and sophisticated weaponries.
Suraya Raiszada
