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Taliban gaining upper hand in Afghanistan
The Australian - August 11, 2009
Brad Norington, Washington – The US military's top commander in Afghanistan has admitted the Taliban have gained the upper hand in fighting, as debate rages in the US over the war's intended "endgame".
General Stanley McChrystal warned yesterday that US casualties, already at record levels, would remain high for many months.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal from Kabul, General McChrystal said the Taliban's strength had grown as they moved beyond traditional areas in southern Afghanistan to threaten formerly stable regions in the north and west.
The commander's comments indicate a surge in US troop numbers, expected to increase from 31,000 to 68,000 by later this year, has not made progress so far.
Just hours after the interview appeared, Taliban militants launched a major attack on a provincial government and police headquarters near the capital Kabul – 10 days before nationwide elections.
General McChrystal said the Taliban were inflicting significant casualties with sophisticated attacks that combined roadside bombs with ambushes by small teams of heavily armed militants.
The assessment is a preview of a strategic assessment General McChrystal is expected to provide Washington later this month, which follows a revised military policy of protecting the local populations ahead of hunting down insurgents.
The general's assessment coincides with a report that 50 Afghan drug traffickers with links to the Taliban have been placed on a Pentagon hit list to be captured or killed.
According to a study to be released by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week, US military commanders have told congressional leaders they believe the policy is legal under the military's rules of engagement and international law.
The leaked report reflected a major shift in American counter-narcotics strategy in Afghanistan, said The New York Times. Military commanders had told the foreign relations committee that traffickers with proven ties to the Taliban had been put on a "joint integrated prioritised list".
The newspaper reported that one US general had told the committee staff there were 367 "kill or capture targets" all up, including "50 nexus targets" linked to drugs and insurgency.
For several years, the US-led forces in Afghanistan have focused on destroying illegal poppy crops in Afghanistan. They are trying to encourage local farmers to grow wheat or fruit instead, and considering paying them to grow nothing.
General McChrystal said yesterday he intended to shift more troops to Kandahar, the largest city in southern Afghanistan, on concerns the Taliban were strengthening their control.
US forces have been mounting a big offensive in neighbouring Helmand, regarded as the centre of the country's drug trade.
The Wall Street Journal said some US military officials believed the Taliban had taken advantage of the US preoccupation with Helmand to infiltrate Kandahar and become more established.
General McChrystal is expected to ask Washington for a further 10,000 troops to join US and allied forces in Afghanistan.
It is also possible Washington could request more troop involvement from other nations, including Australia.
But the US congress is becoming increasingly restive about a further commitment of troops as casualties soar and the purpose of involvement in the conflict becomes unclear.
The US is spending about $US4billion ($4.8bn) a month on the war effort and there are worries in Washington that the US presence in Afghanistan, already considered too large, could string out for a decade or more.
General McChrystal's review of the conflict is understood to have been delayed until after Afghanistan elections on August 20. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said he wants agreements giving his government more control over foreign troops.
Asked to define the purpose of the war yesterday, US national security adviser James Jones said: "The endgame in Afghanistan is obviously to turn (over) the responsibilities for their security and economic prosperity and the governance of the Afghans as quickly as possible."
General Jones, retired, said the Obama administration was developing a "new set of metrics" with the US congress to judge the impact of a build-up in troops and a range of non-military operations with the local population.
He also confirmed yesterday that the US was confident Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had been killed in a drone attack, despite some reports of locals that he was still alive.
Asked whether he thought Osama bin Laden was in the mountainous areas of Pakistan, he said: "That one's a little bit more elusive. We are still very much on the hunt. We think that he's still in the general region, but that's a tougher nut to crack."
General McChrystal said he would redeploy some troops fighting in sparsely populated areas of Afghanistan to others with larger numbers of Afghan civilians.
About 4000 US troops scheduled to arrive soon would be deployed to Kandahar.
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