Afghan flag flown over Marjah town

[ensho]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/02/20102255433545783.html


Afghan and international forces have handed over control of the southern Afghanistan town of Marjah to civilian authorities, in the wake of a huge military operation to capture the area from Taliban control.

Officials raised the Afghan flag over Marjah on Thursday, amid tight security, in a brief ceremony to mark the handover.

Following the flag-raising, a local mullah read verses from the Quran.

-snip-

"The Afghan flag has been raised here a number of times in the last eight years, but so too has the Taliban flag. It's the ordinary people they have to win over," Bays said.

Civilian rule

Abdul Zahir, the newly appointed district governor, arrived in the area on Tuesday and has met local elders.

Separately, development workers have rolled out a number of so-called schools-in-a-box and begun repairs to the local irrigation system.

An elite police unit - the Afghan National Civil Order Police - has been sent to the region to provide security in Marjah, but only on a temporary basis.
-snip-
-------------------

wishing them well

[gratuitous]

1. Victory declared, troops can go home

Unless those sneaky Afghan insurgents hang around and wait for things to calm down, and then move in more ruthless than before. But I don't think anyone could possibly foresee that coming, not even me.

[Robb]

3. Marjah is a proof of concept, nothing more.

It's moderately strategic for the Taliban, sort of a low-level hub for drugs and what-not. But it's more to make the point we can take it and hold it and, indeed, move forward.

[HopeHoops]

2. Another hit with the Whack-A-Mole mallet.

Will it make a flying fuck of a difference in two months? I doubt it.