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Afghanistan: Generals focus on new ways to defeat Taliban
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani arrived in Kabul on Friday for crucial talks with Afghani and US military leaders on new approaches to fighting the Taliban and other terror groups in South Asia. Kiyani was due to meet General Bismillah Khan, chief of staff of the Afghan Army and Gen.David D. McKiernan, the American chief of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and other military officials. Among the issues expected to discussed at the meeting is the highly effective strategy of Gen. David Petraeus, former head of the Multinational Force in Iraq, who is widely credited with the success of the troop surge that stabilised the country's security. The talks were to take place as Pakistani security forces launched a massive military operation in the Khyber Agency on the Afghan border against the Taliban and other suspected militants in order to secure the most crucial supply routes for NATO forces in Afghanistan. Forty-three people with suspected links to the Taliban were detained while 107 others linked to tribal groups were arrested. Thirty-three homes and other properties belonging to the militants were demolished and a curfew has been imposed in the area at certain times of day. The US called for the military operation after more than 450 containers carrying Afghanistan bound NATO supplies including 40 expensive bullet proof vehicles, oil and food supplies were destroyed in December. The operation was to have been carried out two weeks ago but a sudden escalation of Indian forces on Pakistan's eastern border forced Pakistan to relocate many of its troops and equipment from north-western borders with Afghanistan to its eastern borders with India. The US immediately intervened and played a crucial role in diffusing the increased tension between the two neighbouring countries that arose after the Mumbai terror attacks in November. US President Bush personally telephoned President Asif Zardari and urged him not to withdraw Pakistani troops from the western border. Eighty percent of NATO's supplies for landlocked Afghanistan come through the Arabian Sea Port of Karachi and pass through the Khyber Agency. It is the least expensive route for transporting supplies, but the route came under frequent attack last year. According to Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, from the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce, not only were NATO supplies facing disruption by December, but all Afghan trade through the Khyber Agency had been suspended. In early 2009, four new American combat brigades are expected to join the foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan and the demand for supplies will increase. NATO has been exploring new routes from the Black Sea, Russia, Central Asia into Afghanistan. It is the most expensive landlocked route, but if fighting flared again in the Khyber Agency, NATO would have no other choice. Posted by: Fred 2009-01-04 |
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