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Nato has only seven months to take Kandahar from the Taleban
The campaign to drive the Taleban out of Kandahar province has until the end of the year to succeed if it is to capitalise on maximum troop numbers and political unity, Nato commanders and Western diplomats told The Times.Our mission is to show irreversible momentum by the end of 2010 that's the clock I'm using,' Brigadier-General Frederick Hodges, the US Director of Operations in southern Afghanistan, said. We'll never have more capacity than we have by late summer 2010. We 'll never have it any better.' The joint Nato-Afghan campaign codenamed Hamkari, which is the Dari word for co-operation will use the biggest number of troops and police in the country yet. Thousands of Afghan National Army soldiers and paramilitaries are to combine with the existing coalition force in Kandahar as well as additional units from among the 13,000 troops being sent in the second phase of the US surge. The first phase of Hamkari began a fortnight ago and the strategy will include measures such as registering weapons, vehicles, hotels, madrassas and seminaries. Western officials are keen to have a broader range of village and tribal representation in the shuras, or councils, which communicate with officials. They are also keen to bolster the authority of Tooryalai Wesa, the Governor, at the expense of the city's current strongman, Ahmad Wali Karzai, the half-brother of the President. Nato commanders estimate that up to 75 per cent of Taleban fighters in Kandahar province, most of whom are concentrated in the three districts targeted by the military campaign, are locals who may reintegrate if they are offered the right incentives. The commanders are also encouraged by the absence of foreign fighters. We've seen no hardcore al-Qaeda links here,' a senior Nato intelligence officer told The Times. Zero al-Qaeda.' Yet Nato officers know that they have a tough deadline. By the end of the year troop numbers will decline and Dutch forces will withdraw. In November political attention in Washington will be focused on the midterm elections and critics of the war will remind President Obama of his pledge to start pulling out combat troops in 2011. Posted by: ed 2010-05-11 |
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