Agence France-Presse,
Mons, Belgium: NATO commanders in Afghanistan need more troops and equipment to combat the Taliban, the alliance's top officer warned Monday, as insurgent attacks mount in southern and eastern regions.
US General John Craddock said that, based on a new assessment, the commanders would need three military brigades — around 10,000 troops — on top of the single brigade the United States is set to deploy in January.
“We need to fill up our military requirements, we also need then to expand and reach out to other areas — the civil-military efforts — so we have more capability to increase the government's growth,” he told reporters.
“This is the creation of jobs, this is the creation of commerce. That's how the government will generate revenue, to be able to establish a budget and pay the bills. This all has to come together in this coherent way,” he said.
He said that some 22 teams of trainers — numbering around 20 personnel per team — were also needed to help develop the expanding Afghan army.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is comprised of some 51,000 troops drawn from 40 nations, and has increased in strength by some 73 percent over the last two years.
It is tasked with extending the reach of the weak centralised government across the country and to help rebuild.
But NATO's mission — its most ambitious ever — is being undermined by a Taliban-led insurgency focused mainly in the south and east of the strife-torn country.
Craddock said that the insurgency “is more virulent, it is of a higher tempo than it was last year.”
“It is harder, tougher. More engagements, every day, every week, every month, by about 40 percent more,” he told reporters at NATO's military headquarters in Mons, southern Belgium.
He said the increase was due to the sanctuary that some Taliban fighters were finding across the mountainous border in Pakistan, as well as extra funds coming in from the opium trade.
“If they have sanctuary, then whenever they choose they will come back. This will go on forever. That safe-haven, that sanctuary has to be eliminated,” he warned.
Craddock also expressed hope that Pakistani security forces would be able to hold their ground in the border areas and eliminate some of the rear bases.
NATO's 26 member nations agreed last month to target the Afghan opium trade in a bid to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money from reaching the insurgents, and Craddock said some operations were conducted last week.
“I haven't got the details yet,” he said. “There are more that are in the planning stage. This is one of those that we are pushing hard to move forward.”
Under the new plan, NATO troops now have a green light to hunt down drug lords and laboratories, but not to burn down poppy fields which could turn Afghan farmers against the alliance.
