AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Washington: NATO forces have killed more than 1,000 Taliban fighters in an offensive in southern Afghanistan, but military efforts to pacify the country are being undercut by a burgeoning drug trade, NATO's supreme commander said Wednesday. General James Jones warned that failure to deal with drug trafficking and reform the corrupt Afghan police and judiciary would keep international troops in the country “for a much longer period of time than we need to be.”
At a press conference here, Jones blamed the failure to curb the drug trade, which this year reaped record poppy harvests, on a lack of focus and will on the part of the international community.
“As a matter of fact, we're not making progress; we're losing ground. And that has to be reversed, because it affects the entire fabric, social structure, economic structure, and it supports the insurgency,” he said.
Despite the heavy Taliban losses in southern Afghanistan, Jones predicted that its fighters would attempt to regroup and establish themselves in other areas, possibly further to the west.
“It remains to be seen how much more capacity they have for this kind of fight,” Jones told reporters here. “I think they will look for other areas.”
Jones estimated the size of the Taliban force at 3,000 to 4,000 hard core fighters at any given time, augmented by “weekend warriors” fighting for pay.
The Taliban came out in force in the south in the spring and summer, mounting its biggest attacks since its ouster in late 2001 as NATO troops were taking over the region from a US-led force.
Suicide bombings, roadside bombings and other tactics reminiscent of the insurgency in Iraq also have accompanied the Taliban resurgence, which has resulted in growing NATO and civilian casualties.
Jones said NATO commanders were taken by surprise by the level of resistance.
“But what's really most surprising is the change in the tactics. Because they decided to stand and fight in a fairly conventional, linear sense. And they paid a very heavy price for it,” he said.
Asked his estimate of the number of Taliban fighters killed in NATO's “Operation Medusa” in the south, Jones said “probably somewhere in the neighborhood of around a thousand. But you can go up two or three hundred. If you said 1,500 it wouldn't surprise me.”
He said about 20,000 people were displaced by the fighting, centered in an area about 40 kilometers southwest of Kandahar.
NATO forces are now moving to repair damage from the campaign, which involved intensive use of air strikes, and provide humanitarian aid to people affected by the fighting.
Jones said NATO allies, who rebuffed a request for an additional 2,500 troops earlier this month, have come forward with most of the extra troops he asked for.
But he acknowledged that the force needs more helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.
Romania is deploying an infantry battalion that will serve as a theater reserve, and Poland has pledged to send a maneuver battalion in January that can be used with no restrictions, he said.
The Canadian and British forces also are being augmented in the south, and Afghan battalions have been added to the line up, Jones said.
