NATO mulls new Afghan role amidst rising insurgency
Foreign Desk Report
KABUL—NATO members are discussing options to resolve differences over
the role of their forces in Afghanistan as the alliance moves toward
taking over foreign military operations in the country, NATO’s top
official in Kabul said on Saturday. The United States, which has about
two-thirds of the foreign troops in Afghanistan and is looking to cut
its commitment given pressures in Iraq, has been trying to get European
allies to take on more of the burden of battling a stubborn Taliban
insurgency. NATO currently leads a separate 12,500-strong International
Security Assistance Force peacekeeping operation.
At a NATO meeting last month, France and Spain insisted the two missions
should remain separate with different chains of command while Germany
said it would not like to expose its soldiers to more danger by linking
the two mandates. NATO’s top civilian representative in Kabul, Hikmet
Cetin, said there was agreement in principle on the need for “synergy” —
or a single command — for the two forces and this would become
inevitable with the further expansion of the NATO force in the restive
south next year.
He said one option being discussed was for two separate task forces
under the same NATO command — one for counter-insurgency and another for
“stability” operations. “If some countries continue to say they cannot
participate in the counter terrorism, then it would have to be double
hatted,” he said in a briefing for reporters. Cetin said the plan for
the eventual NATO command was for U.S. forces to remain in the east,
while Britain was responsible for the south, helped by Canada and the
Netherlands.
Italy would be responsible for the west, helped by Spain; Turkey and
France the center, and Germany the north. Britain’s Defense Secretary
John Reid, in Kabul to discuss Britain’s plans to takeover ISAF’s
command next May and to deploy British troops in the south played down
the NATO differences. He said while NATO states agreed on the need for
synergy some had said they needed to make sure this did not impinge upon
the terms under which they deployed troops in Afghanistan. “That’s
perfectly understandable, that’s just something that needs to be worked
through,” he told a news conference.
“I don’t know anyone in NATO who is opposed to closer synergy. Some
people are opposed to making a total single mission which is a different
thing.” Reid, whose government has backed the U.S. call, said news
reports of last month’s NATO meeting were not an accurate reflection of
what was said there. NATO’s expansion plans will be discussed when NATO
Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer leads a delegation to Kabul of
the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s top political decision-making
body, from next Tuesday.
U.S. and Afghan forces arrested a Taliban commander suspected in bomb
attacks against coalition forces during a raid on central Afghanistan
home, where he tried to conceal his identity by dressing as a woman,
police said Saturday. The commander, known as Gafar, was arrested
Wednesday in Andar district of Ghazni province, southwest of the
capital, Kabul. A U.S. military statement said he was a “key enemy
commander” behind attacks on Afghan and U.S. forces in the province
carried out with homemade bombs, rockets and small-caliber handguns. “He
was a threat in Ghazni,” provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Rahman
Sarjang said.
During the raid, the suspect tried to conceal his identity by dressing
as a woman with a veil and sitting with other women in the house,
Sarjang said. Gafar was handed over to U.S. forces for questioning, he
said.
A U.S. soldier and an Afghan soldier have been killed in a militant
attack in the southern province of Kandahar, the U.S military said on
Saturday. One U.S. soldier and two Afghan army soldiers were also
wounded in the small arms and rocket-propelled grenade attack on Friday,
a military statement said.
The U.S. death brought to eight the number of U.S. personnel killed in
Afghanistan since Taliban and allied militants failed to derail landmark
parliamentary elections held on September 18. So far this year 52 U.S.
troops have been killed in action in Afghanistan, making it the
bloodiest period for U.S. forces since they overthrew the Taliban in
late 2001. Another U.S. statement said U.S. troops and Afghan police
captured a key Taliban commander in Ghazni province on Wednesday. It
said Abdul Gafar had been responsible for a number of attacks on U.S.
and Afghan forces in the area.
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