BARACK OBAMA yesterday replaced his top general in Afghanistan in an attempt to turn round a war that has been going badly for the US and to step up the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Gen David McKiernan, who was in overall command of all Nato forces, lost the job after only 11 months in command.
Taliban forces have been making steady advances in Afghanistan, in a war that the US had thought it had won in 2001.
Gen McKiernan is to to replaced by Lieut Gen Stanley McChrystal, a soldier who has spent most of his career in one of the most secretive forces in the US, specialising in counter-insurgency.
The Pentagon declined to say why Gen McKiernan was being replaced. But the change comes as Gen David Petraeus, who oversees military strategy for the region, is implementing Mr Obama’s new strategic plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, announcing the change at a Pentagon press conference, said there was a time for “new thinking” on Afghanistan.
Gates said Gen McKiernan had done nothing wrong but there was a feeling that there was a need for a fresh look. His removal came a week after at least 100 Afghan civilians died in a US air strike in Farah province.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who attended the press conference with Mr Gates, said Gen McKiernan would have been rotated anyway at the end of 18 to 24 months.
Gen McKiernan had been repeatedly asking for a significant increase in US or other Nato forces in Afghanistan, saying he needed at least 30,000 more troops for what he warned was going to be a tough 12 months.
Mr Obama gave him only two- thirds of that, and this included troops who would not have a combat role but instead are to train Afghan forces. It may be that it was felt that Gen McKiernan was too old-fashioned in his thinking.
Lieut-Gen McChrystal, his replacement, has spent most of his career behind the scenes in special forces and has led operations aimed at targeting particular individuals, such as the one that resulted in the killing of the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in 2006.
Gen McChrystal has built his reputation on co-ordinating various strands of intelligence in a ruthless pursuit of enemies.
The switch comes only weeks after Mr Obama announced the outcome of a review of policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As part of that, Mr Obama indicated he wanted a more focused counter-insurgency approach, which would suit Gen McChrystal more, and is sending an extra 21,000 US troops to Afghanistan.
Gen McChrystal’s role in Zarqawi’s killing was revealed by President George Bush, who gave him public credit for the attack. He faced a Senate confirmation hearing last year, with senators asking about alleged mistreatment of detainees by special forces under his command in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile nearly 50 Afghan teenagers were in hospital after a mystery gas attack on a girls school in the northern town of Charikar, the second mass poisoning of female students in a month, a doctor said yesterday.
The headmaster rushed his students out of their classrooms at the Ura Jalili Girls’ High School after they smelt an unusual odour and started feeling nauseous and dizzy, one 17-year-old victim said from her hospital bed.
“I am pretty sure whoever has done this is against education for girls, but I strongly ask the parents not to be discouraged by such brutal action and send their children to school,” said ninth-grader Noor Jahan.
Some 46 girls were being treated in hospital, and a few were still receiving oxygen, but none were in a life-threatening state.
Doctor Anwar Karimi said the symptoms were similar to those of girls brought into hospital after another mystery poisoning on a separate girls’ school in late April in the same town.
There have been no clues as to what the gas was or where it came from, he said. Attacks on girls schools have increased in the past year, particularly in the east and south of the country. Last year a group of schoolgirls in Kandahar had acid thrown in their faces by men who objected to them attending school.
Charikar is a relatively peaceful area of Afghanistan.
Until late 2001, when the Taliban were overthrown by US-led and Afghan forces, women were prohibited from going to school or work. – ( Guardianservice; additional reporting: Reuters)