Nato assumes command in southern Afghanistan

The Nato-led force, made up mostly of British, Canadian and Dutch troops, took over in the south from a US-led anti-terror coalition that was first deployed nearly five years ago to unseat the hardline Taliban regime for harbouring Osama bin Laden.

“Today’s transfer of authority demonstrates to the Afghan people that there is a strong commitment on the part of the international community to further extend security into the southern region’s provinces,” Lt. General Karl Eikenberry, commander of US-led coalition forces, said in a Nato statement.

The mission is considered the most dangerous and challenging in the Western alliance’s 57-year history. It coincides with the deadliest upsurge in fighting in Afghanistan since late 2001 that has killed hundreds of people – mostly militants – since May.

The takeover follows three days of intense fighting that left more than 50 Taliban and eight others dead.

A bomb planted in a car exploded near a mosque today in Farmay Adha, an area 12 miles south of the Nangarhar provincial capital of Jalalabad, killing eight, including five police and three children, officials said. Sixteen others were wounded.

Thousands of mourners gathered in and around the mosque to mark the death of Younis Khalis, a former mujahedeen commander and Islamic hard-liner, who died July 19.

The provincial police chief, General Abdul Basir Solangi, blamed the Taliban for the bombing, which he believed was aimed at Nangarhar provincial Governor Gul Agha Sherzai, who drove away from the mosque minutes before the explosion.

Sherzai escaped a May 3 assassination attempt when a bomb planted in a jeep exploded outside his office.

Some 200 Afghan forces also killed 23 Taliban insurgents yesterday in raids on two hide-outs near the Helmand provincial town of Garmser, which Taliban forces overran and briefly took control of earlier this month, police said.

Another six insurgents were killed yesterday while fighting Afghan troops in the southeast. Four militants died in separate explosions while planting bombs in southern Kandahar province.

Coalition and Afghan troops killed 20 militants on Saturday in southern Uruzgan province, where some 1,500 Dutch troops have deployed.

The Nato alliance’s 8,000-strong deployment in the south includes some US troops and will be under the command of British Lt. Gen. David Richards. Officials said Richards effectively becomes the first non-US general to command American forces in combat operations.

“In one sense it is historical,” Richards told reporters yesterday before assuming command.

“But also it is important for the world that Afghanistan is not allowed to be tipped back to its pre-9/11 state and allow a Taliban lookalike government with its sympathies to come back into power.”

Nato conducted aerial combat operations during the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, but has yet to conduct major ground combat operations since being founded in 1949 as a deterrent against the Soviet bloc.

Nato already has troops in the more stable regions of Kabul and the north and west of Afghanistan. Most of the forces deployed to the south were moved into the region months back, but until now have operated under coalition command.

The US-led coalition will continue to work in the unstable east of Afghanistan, where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are also active.

Taliban-led insurgents have escalated roadside bombings and suicide attacks this year, and have also mounted brazen attacks on several small towns and district police stations – a tactic rarely seen in the previous four years.

Nato hopes to bring a new strategy to dealing with the Taliban rebellion: establishing bases rather than chasing militants. It is also wants to win the support of locals by creating secure zones where development can take place.

But questions remain whether it can quell the violence enough to let aid workers get to work in a lawless and impoverished region, where about a quarter of Afghanistan’s huge opium crop is grown.

Another challenge for Nato will be to stem what Afghan and some Western officials say is cross-border infiltration of militants from neighbouring Pakistan.

On a visit to Afghanistan yesterday, French defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie said many Taliban fighters were crossing from Pakistan to stage attacks, and urged Pakistan to step up efforts to stop them.

Pakistan, a key US ally in its war on terrorism, says it does all it can to patrol the Afghan border.