Top general: Nato not losing Afghan war
The top Nato general in Afghanistan said he rejects the idea that Nato is losing the Afghanistan war to an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency.
But US Gen David McKiernan also said he needs more military forces to tackle the militants, and he painted a picture of a chaotic Afghan countryside where insurgents hold more power than the Afghan government seven years after the US-led invasion.
He said better governance and economic progress were vital.
“It is true that in many places of this country we don’t have an acceptable level of security. We don’t have good governance. We don’t have socio-economic progress,” he told a news conference in Kabul.
“We don’t have progress as evenly or as fast as many of us would like, but we are not losing Afghanistan,” he said.
In the country’s south, meanwhile, Taliban militants launched a surprise attack on the provincial capital of Helmand, sparking a battle that killed about 60 insurgents, an Afghan official said.
Militants attacked the town of Lashkar Gah from three sides yesterday morning and were pushed back only after a battle that involved Nato and Afghan troops and the use of airstrikes, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor.
Rockets landed in different parts of the city but there were no civilian casualties, he said.
Gen McKiernan said hundreds of insurgents gathered for the attack, and a Nato statement said its aircraft bombed insurgent positions, killing “multiple enemy forces”.
“If the insurgents planned a spectacular attack prior to the winter, this was a spectacular failure,” said Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, the spokesman for the Nato-led force.
In a second battle in Helmand, Afghan and international troops retook the Nad Ali district centre – which had been held by militants – during a three-day fight, Ahmadi said. That battle, which also involved airstrikes, ended on Saturday. About 40 militants were killed, he said.
Afghan police and soldiers are now in control of the district centre.
Ahmadi’s death tolls could not be verified independently. Journalists are not able to travel to remote and dangerous battle sites. Afghan officials have been known to exaggerate death tolls in the past.
Insurgency-related violence has killed more than 4,800 people – mostly militants – this year, according to an Associated Press count of figures from Western and Afghan officials. A record number of US and Nato soldiers have already died in 2008.
Back in Kabul, Gen McKiernan said that Nato forces should do more to engage “traditional tribal authorities” to improve security and governance, but he said Nato would not bring back armed militias.
Gen McKiernan’s proposal could be a way to empower local leaders. The government of President Hamid Karzai is largely seen as ineffective outside of Kabul and the capital cities of the country’s 34 provinces.
Echoing calls that other US and Nato leaders have made for months, Gen McKiernan said he needs more military forces but also more helicopters, transport planes and civil affairs teams. He said country mandated restrictions that keep some Nato members out of the fight in Afghanistan are harmful to the mission. German and Italian forces are heavily restricted.
There are about 65,000 international troops in Afghanistan, including some 32,000 US forces, all record numbers. Gen McKiernan has requested another three to four brigades of American forces – between 10,000 and 15,000 troops – and it appears likely those forces will arrive sometime next year.
Gen McKiernan said there is a connection between lowering the number of US forces in Iraq and the Pentagon’s ability to redirect troops to Afghanistan. Gen McKiernan and his predecessor have long said that the Nato mission is short on troops.
The forces Gen McKiernan said he would most like to see are Afghan soldiers and police, but until a “tipping point” is reached where Afghan forces have the numbers and skill to secure their own country, the international community needs to continue to dedicate troops here, he said.
