US Gen. McChrystal and the Afghan people/Brits fighting with US aviation help

The new US and ISAF commander really seems to be making a effort to refocus things. The start of an earlier post:

Changing US Afghan strategy?/Update: Flawed NATO strategy

People, not places:

New Afghanistan Commander Will Review Troop Placements

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who took over Monday [June 15] as the top commander in Afghanistan, said he will launch a broad assessment of how U.S. and NATO troops are arrayed in the country to ensure his forces are focused on safeguarding key population centers and not hunting down Taliban fighters...

More recently:

1) Airstrike limitation:

U.S. Tightens Airstrike Policy in Afghanistan

The new American commander in Afghanistan said he would sharply restrict the use of airstrikes here, in an effort to reduce the civilian deaths that he said were undermining the American-led mission.

In interviews over the past few days, the commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, said the use of airstrikes during firefights would in most cases be allowed only to prevent American and other coalition troops from being overrun.

Even in the cases of active firefights with Taliban forces, he said, airstrikes will be limited if the combat is taking place in populated areas — the very circumstances in which most Afghan civilian deaths have occurred. The restrictions will be especially tight in attacking houses and compounds where insurgents are believed to have taken cover.

“Air power contains the seeds of our own destruction if we do not use it responsibly,” General McChrystal told a group of his senior officers during a video conference last week. “We can lose this fight.”

“When we shoot into a compound, that should only be for the protection of our forces,” he said. “I want everyone to understand that.”

The statements by General McChrystal signaled the latest tightening of the rules for using airstrikes, which, while considered indispensable for protecting troops, have killed hundreds of civilians...

General McChrystal’s new guidelines follow a deadly episode last month in the Afghan village of Granai, where American airstrikes killed dozens of civilians.

The episode highlighted the difficulties facing American officers under fire, as they are forced to balance using lethal force to protect their troops with rules restricting the use of firepower to prevent civilian deaths.

The episode, on May 4, began when a large group of Taliban fighters attacked a group of about 200 Afghan soldiers and police officers and American advisers. During the firefight, which began just after noon and carried on into the night, the Americans on the ground called for air support.

American fighter jets, and then bombers, came to the scene, dropping a number of 500- and 2,000-pound bombs. The bombs succeeded in ending the attack, but they did much more damage as well.

A Pentagon report estimated that at least 26 civilians had been killed in the airstrikes. It concluded that American personnel had made significant errors, including violating procedures, that led to those deaths. Among those errors, the report said, was a failure by the American personnel to discern whether Afghan civilians were in the compound before they attacked.

Other credible estimates of civilian deaths in Granai ranged much higher. An investigation by a Kabul-based group, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, said that at least 86 women and children had been killed, and as many as 97 civilians altogether. The Afghan government said 140 civilians had been killed.

The Pentagon report did not dispute the conclusions reached by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, and referred to its “balanced, thorough investigation.”..

The changes highlighted by General McChrystal go to the heart of what went wrong in Granai. In that case, there were at least four airstrikes: the first by F-18 fighters [they would be from the USS Eisenhower] and the other three by a B-1B bomber. The report found that it was the last two airstrikes that probably caused the civilian deaths.

In those cases, the report found, the bomber’s crew tracked suspected Taliban fighters as they entered a building, and then attacked without determining whether civilians were inside. The report said there were probably civilians inside those buildings when they were destroyed.

Under the rules that General McChrystal outlined, those strikes would almost certainly be prohibited. They would be prohibited, the general said, even if it meant letting some Taliban get away.

Referring to airstrikes, General McChrystal said, “If it is just to defeat the enemy, then we are not going to do it, even if it means we are going to step away from that firefight and fight another time [emphasis added].” ..

2) On the ground:

US general says troops need new view of Aghan war

U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said that U.S. and other NATO troops must make a "cultural shift" away from being a force designed for high intensity combat and instead make protecting Afghan civilians their first priority.

The newly arrived four-star commander said Wednesday [June 24] he hopes to install a new military mindset by drilling into troops the need to reduce the number of Afghan civilians killed in combat.

McChrystal is expected to formally announce new combat rules within days that will order troops to break away from fights - if they can do so safely - if militants are firing from civilian homes [emphasis added]. One effect of the new order will be that troops may have to wait out insurgents instead of using force to oust them, he said.

"Traditionally American forces are designed for conventional, high-intensity combat," McChrystal said during a visit to Camp Leatherneck, a new U.S. Marine base housing thousands of newly deployed Marines in southern Helmand province. "In my mind what we've really got to do is make a cultural shift."

Because the military is such a big organization, the new message will take "constant repetition," he said...

Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the Marine commander at Camp Leatherneck, said his forces were already following McChrystal's new commands.

"Our focus from the very beginning has not been Taliban. It's been civilians," he said. "We've paid a lot of attention to avoiding civilian casualties. ... We have a lot of combat vets, a lot of Iraq vets. And I think we learned early on the importance of trust and support of the locals."

He added: "There will be plenty of opportunities to kill Taliban, and we're pretty good at that. Bur the focus here, the reason we're here, is the people, not the Taliban."

The Pentagon has asked McChrystal for a 60-day review of the Afghan war, a review that could result in a recommendation to shift troops to new locations in Afghanistan [see first quote above]. McChrystal said he didn't yet know if he would request more troops [emphasis added]...

Clearly earlier efforts regarding civilians did not prove as effective as desired--from January this year:

Afstan: New NATO ROEs

As for that fighting:

British forces attack Taliban in major air assault in Afghanistan
More than 350 helicopter-borne British soldiers have attacked a Taliban stronghold in one of their biggest air assaults since 2001.

Soldiers running from helicopter: Black Watch troops launch major Afghanistan assault

Soldiers from the Black Watch seized three river crossings north of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan.

Commanders hailed the assault as "very successful", with no British soldiers killed and none seriously wounded.

The Babaji area where the attack took place is an insurgent haven, where few Nato-led or Afghan government forces had ventured before, they said.

Taliban insurgents launched a series of small counter attacks after the raid before they "drifted away". Bomb-making materials, landmines and 1.3 tons of opium poppy seeds were also seized.

The operation, named Panchai Palang or Panther's Claw, used 12 British and American Chinook helicopters backed by 13 aircraft in what was described as "one of the largest air operations in modern times".

Lt Col Stephen Cartwright, commander of The Black Watch, said: "This has been a major air assault operation with a large number of helicopters by the UK and US [those choppers would be from the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade based at KAF].

"The Black Watch met some resistance but we were able to establish a firm foothold in the area." The attack was made possible by an influx of thousands of US troops ordered to Helmand by US President, Barack Obama.

In the past three years, British operations in Helmand have been undermined by a severe lack of helicopters. However earlier this year Royal Marine Lt Gen Jim Dutton, deputy commander of Nato-led forces, said the arrival of dozens of US craft across the south could be "game-changing" [see 2/3 down this post for info on Marine helicopters at Helmand itself].

The men of the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland [actually based at KAF as the quick reaction force for RC South as a whole], landed in Babaji before midnight on June 19, supported by Apache and Black Hawk helicopter gunships, Harrier jets, unmanned drones and a Spectre gunship. [Bang! Bang! Better be no civilians.]

An additional 200 soldiers from the Black Watch, Royal Engineers and bomb disposal units set up check points after arriving in armoured vehicles.

By capturing crossings at Lui Mandey Wadi, the Nahr-e-Burgha canal and the Shamalan canal, a spokesman said British forces will be able to build permanent bases and checkpoints in the area for Afghan forces.

Lt Col Nick Richardson, a spokesman for British forces in the province, said: "The end result will provide lasting security for the local population free from intimidation and violence by the insurgents...