Afghans Wary of US Swoop

Many Afghans are downbeat the US offensive in southern Afghanistan would make difference in their life.

"For several years there have been operations and bombings and explosions, but the Taliban were not destroyed," Khan, from the district of Nawa, along the Helmand River, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday, July 4.

"Fighting increased and, now, also, I don't think that this operation can succeed."

Khan said the foreign troops have only brought instability that was "increasing day by day," criticizing "useless" bombings, arrests and searches of private homes.

He said locals are caught between the foreign troops and the Taliban.

"If we take this side, that side will beat us," he said. "And we don't have power to do anything."

Haji Nazir, another Afghan villager, agrees.

"We neither support Taliban nor the government because the hands of both of red with blood," he said.

Nazir said the airstrikes by the foreign troops had destroyed Afghan families "by taking their sons".

"Foreign troops should leave the country and the Taliban must be accepted as a political movement," said the 56-year-old farmer who is from Garsmir, where hundreds of Marines landed Thursday, but was talking from nearby Gereshk.

Thousands of troops are pushing deep for a third day into Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan.

So far only one US Marine has been reported killed in the offensive, which the US commanding officer said was becoming a "hell of a fight".

"We don't have any casualties. The enemy had, but we don't have figures," the Afghan defense ministry said in a short statement on Saturday.

Dreams

For 28-year-old Abdul Baqi, stability and employment have become a far-distance dream.

"We want stability and security from the foreign forces and we want the prevention of poppy cultivation," said Abdul Baqi, a student in the Lashkar Gah town.

"Here unemployment is high and a lot people are trying to get money in illegal ways like in drugs trafficking or they are involved in terrorist activities."

Khan, the Afghan landowner, agreed, criticizing corruption plaguing the central Asian country.

A recent national survey showed that the cancer of corruption has hit a level unprecedented in Afghanistan for the past three decades.

More than half of Afghans questioned admitted to having paid a bribe for everything from getting passports to securing electricity for homes and even to pay taxes.

Khan said it was unlikely he would vote in August 20 presidential and provincial council elections, the focus of a recent series of Afghan and international operations aimed at clearing out Taliban strongholds.

"We are not able to participate in the election because fear of the Taliban is more than anything else."

The election is a milestone in an internationally agreed plan to steer Afghanistan towards democracy after the Taliban was removed by the 2001 US invasion.