AP

KABUL

A NEW report on Wednesday by a Kabul-based think-tank accuses international forces of misleading the public by calling military operations ‘Afghan-led’ even in cases where NATO or US forces are the only troops on the ground.

The charge cuts to the heart of a public perception battle being waged in Afghanistan, where international troops are eager to showcase successes by Afghan forces and to downplay the role played by international soldiers as NATO draws down forces and hands over security to Afghan control.

The United States and other nations that make up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have already started pulling out troops with the goal of putting Afghans in charge of countrywide security by the end of 2014. The alliance wants to show that Afghans are up to the task so that the country does not descend into civil strife after 10 years of a NATO-led war against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.

“ISAF’s desire to present accounts of events as favourably as possible is to be expected, but sometimes this slips into propaganda, halftruths and, occasionally, cover up,” said British analyst Kate Clark, the author of the report by the Kabul-based think-tank Afghan Analysts Network.

As the drawdown of foreign forces progresses, the international troops are expected to transition more and more into the role of supporting Afghan forces, rather than leading them.

A draft strategic partnership pact agreed by the US and Afghanistan earlier this week said after 2014, US forces will only fight in Afghanistan with the government’s approval.

In the transition, one phrase, ‘Afghan-led’‚ has become increasingly prevalent in NATO and US news releases describing operations.

The report charges alleges that the term has been so loosely applied that it has, in at least once instance, been used for an assault conducted entirely by US troops.

The report entitled Death of an Uruzgan Journalist focuses on the case of Afghan reporter Omaid Khpulwak, who was caught in a TV and radio broadcasting station known as the RTA building in July 2011 when it was attacked by insurgent suicide bombers as part of a larger attack on the southern city of Tarin Kot.

Khpulwak survived the initial blast but was shot by an American soldier who mistook him for an insurgent, according to a US military investigation report made public by Australia’s The Age newspaper in January after a Freedom of Information Act request.

The investigation also concluded that US troops were the only ones to enter the building and that Afghan forces on the ground did not issue commands to those forces.

But a NATO news release a day after the attack said: “Afghan commandos and a combined team of Afghan national security forces responded unilaterally to insurgent attacks in Tarin Kot.” Clark argues in her report that the messaging put out by the Afghan government and NATO and US forces following the attacks in Uruzgan obfuscated the role of US troops, leading Khpulwak’s family and others in Tarin Kot to suspect an intentional cover-up.

A spokesman for US forces said it was still appropriate to call the Uruzgan response ‘Afghan-led’ because Afghan forces were overseeing the entire response that day, which included defending against attackers at the governor’s compound and elsewhere in the city.

“The personnel that were at the RTA building were part of an Afghan-led response to the entire attack in Tarin Kot,” said Colonel Gary Kolb. He said that any operation for which the command element is Afghan would be considered Afghan-led.

“Afghan-led is Afghan-led if we’re only providing a level of minimal support and they’re the ones making the decisions to do a particular response,” Kolb said.

But confusion appears to result from what qualifies as “minimal support.” In the case of Tarin Kot, US forces made the decisions on the ground at the RTA building, entered the building and oversaw the operation to find the bombers hiding inside, according to the US military investigation.

It’s a linguistic detail that will become increasingly important over the next few years as officials in the US and other NATO countries will have to decide how quickly to remove troops from areas that have been handed over to Afghan control and how many to pull out.

The phrasing created confusion as recently as this month’s coordinated attacks on Kabul and three other eastern cities.

Kabul city was one of the first areas to transition to Afghan control and NATO commander General John Allen praised Afghan forces for fighting off the insurgents without having to call on international troops.