New U.S. strategy working in east Afghanistan

By Jon Hemming

SAKYAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan village elder Noor Mohammad stroked his white beard as he listened to a local government chief appeal for help to rebuild the economy of this snow-bound plateau shattered by war and the fight with the Taliban.

Mohammad and the other elders at an impromptu shura, or council, think they have seen it all before, but new U.S. counter-insurgency strategy backing Afghan government and security forces in the east of the country aims to break with the past and appears to be achieving some results.

"Many people came here and made promises, but nothing has been done," said Mohammad, the senior elder in the village of Sakyan, a scattered collection of sparse high-walled compounds and snow-bound fields in Paktia province, south of the capital Kabul and close to the border with Pakistan.

Afghan army troops, backed by U.S. forces, are in the middle of an operation in the district, until only a few months ago a Taliban stronghold.

But the object of the operation is not to kill Taliban rebels who have fed off discontent with the slow pace of development to relaunch their fight to topple the pro-Western Afghan government and eject foreign troops.

"Hurting people is not the purpose," said Colonel David Woods, the U.S. commander in Paktia. There has been no fighting and no casualties so far in the operation. "If we kill someone out here is sets us back. If no one gets hurt in this entire operation, and I mean on both sides, that's an awesome success."

The new U.S. counter-insurgency doctrine, published at the end of 2006, is now beginning to be felt on the ground and may be paying off. Between August and the end of October last year, there were 60 improvised explosive devices in the Zormat district of Paktia. Since November, there have been none.

While the harsh winter undoubtedly played a part, across eastern Afghanistan, where U.S. forces predominate, there has been a marked drop off in violence in the second half of 2007.