Afghanistan wants more NATO troops, but only for border areas

Nov 22, 2008, 12:21 GMT

Kabul - With countries like the US and other NATO alliance indicating they will send more troops to war-torn Afghanistan, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Saturday his country would accept extra foreign troops only if they were deployed to border areas and places controlled by insurgents.

Spanta Afghan Foreign Affairs Minister told a press conference on Saturday in Kabul that it was not 'acceptable' for Afghanistan to see large swath of the country controlled by Taliban insurgents and other opposition groups despite the presence of some 70,000 international forces.

'We can't accept that there are a large number of foreign forces in country, and the places where they (foreign forces) are stationed, are controlled by opposition groups,' Spanta said.

'We do want the international community to send more troops, but they should go to the places, which are in the hands of Taliban, to the border areas of Afghanistan,' the foreign minister said, adding, 'Or the government of Afghanistan would not agree' with the additional deployment.

Taliban militants who were driven from power in a US-led military invasion in late 2001, have become active in southern and eastern regions, while the insurgent recently also penetrated into new areas in northern and western provinces as well as capital Kabul.

Following their ouster, according to Afghan officials, the militants regrouped in tribal areas of Pakistan and from there coordinated their attacks on Afghan and international forces inside Afghanistan.

The Taliban militants mainly gained lands in areas along the 2,400 kilometres shared border with Pakistan. In most cases, according to Afghan and NATO military officials, the insurgents escaped to Pakistani side of border after attacking the combined forces' positions on Afghan soil.

Wary of losing war to insurgents in Afghanistan, both the outgoing US President George W Bush, and President-elect Barack Obama have vowed to send more troops to the country to clamp down on the militants.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates reportedly said on Friday that he was considering sending as many as five more combat brigades, plus resources such as planes and helicopters to support them.

The additional US soldiers are expected in Afghanistan before country's president election, slated for fall next year.

Security analysts have warned that election would not be held if the situation in southern and eastern provinces, where Taliban are the most active, remained the same.

Spanta, who was speaking in a joint news conference with his visiting Danish counterpart, Per Stig Moeller, warned the international communities that Afghanistan would liberate the areas under control of Taliban by reviving 'tribal forces' and 'self- defence forces' if additional NATO troops were not deployed to help Afghan forces do the job.

The minister admitted that Afghanistan had had bad experience from militia groups, who fought each other and plunged the country into a bloody civil war following the fall of communist-back regime in Kabul in 1990s, but said that his country had no other option.

On his country's part, Moeller said that Denmark was committed in assisting Afghanistan in the war against terrorism and reconstruction of the country, adding that NATO countries had no other option but to win the war in Afghanistan.

'We are in this war together, and we will win this war together,' said Moeller, after visiting Danish troops, who are stationed in southern province of Helmand, the most volatile region in the country.

Around 700 Danish troops are in Afghanistan, with most of them stationed in Helmand province, where British forces are commanding the NATO troops in the province. The Danish soldiers are part of more than 50,000 NATO-led troops, deployed to country from 40 nations.