AFGHANISTAN: Netherlands says will press Pakistan to stop Afghan militants from operating from its territory; calls on NATO allies to send more troops

The Netherlands will press Pakistan to do more to stop Afghan militants operating from its territory and push its own NATO allies to send more troops to the volatile south, where it took command of operations this week. Visiting Kabul, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot told reporters on Saturday (November 4) he would take up the border issue with officials in Islamabad over the weekend. Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of not doing enough to close training camps for the Taliban and other militant groups in its lawless borderlands and some officials say Islamabad is still actively sponsoring its former protege. Pakistan denies this. "The world community, including the Netherlands, is very serious about exerting pressure on Pakistan to see to it that the border is sealed off, that terrorists can no longer cross from Pakistan into ... the south of your country." Afghan intelligence officials say all the Taliban's training camps are in Pakistan and that the hardline Islamist group is still backed by the government in Islamabad. "If Pakistan realises that the world is looking at them, then I am also sure that we can put a halt to it," Bot said. He also said countries contributing to the NATO-led International Assistance Force (ISAF) should deploy more troops to the south, the Taliban's heartland where the Netherlands took over NATO's regional command this week. "We feel that more NATO members should commit themselves not only on paper but by sending more troops to sensitive and difficult areas," he said. Other countries with troops concentrated in the south, including Canada, have made similar calls ahead of a NATO summit at the end of this month. Afghanistan is going through it's bloodiest year since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban's strict Islamist government in late 2001. More than 3,100 people have died so far this year, about a third of them civilians. NATO last month took over control of security across the entire country from U.S. forces and has about 31,000 troops under its command. The Netherlands has about 1,670 troops in Afghanistan, mostly in the rugged southern province of Uruzgan. NATO troops fought suspected Taliban insurgents during a sweep for rebels northeast of Kabul on Saturday in the first major encounter in the area since the 2001 war. A NATO spokesman said the clash in the Tagab valley, 70 km (45 miles) from the capital, came as a convoy was attacked while hunting for guerrillas near the main base for U.S.-led coalition forces at Bagram airfield. Fighting across Afghanistan is the worst since the Taliban government was overthrown. More than 3,100 people, about a third of them civilians, have been killed so far this year. NATO assumed full command of Afghanistan's security from the U.S.-led coalition last month, the biggest operation in its history.

ITN Source | November 5, 2006

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