SLOVENIA: NATO nations agree to assume command of peacekeeping across all of insurgency-hit Afghanistan in the next few weeks

NATO nations agreed on Thursday (September 28) to assume command of peacekeeping across all of insurgency-hit Afghanistan in the next few weeks. The move was endorsed by alliance defence ministers meeting in the Slovenian coastal resort of Portoroz and will largely involve placing under NATO command some 12,000 mostly U.S. forces already in the region early next month. "We have decided to go into what we call phase 4 of the expansion of ISAF into the East which will bring 12,000 plus U.S. forces including what we call in our jargon enablers, that is support on the ground and in the air into ISAF. I think that is a very important decision, and I am grateful that the United States has decided to bring it's forces under ISAF," Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after a NATO meeting in Slovenia, referring to NATOs International Security Assistance Force. U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it was perfectly understandable if other NATO allies restricted where their troops could operate and added he had no expectations about other nations decision on whether they would contribute more forces to ISAF. "I have no expectations about any nation. I have always believed that everyone should do what they feel comfortable doing. Each nation has different history, different background, different parliaments and they make those decisions themselves and it's not for another country to tell them what to do or even suggest it, publicly," Rumsfeld told reporters at news conference after the meeting. Germany, whose parliament on Thursday agreed to extend for another year the mandate of its 3,000-strong mission in the relatively calm north of Afghanistan, once again declined at the talks to send any troops to the south. Other large western European nations including France, Italy and Spain have all refused to send troops to the region, saying their armed forces are at full stretch elsewhere. The U.S. troop transfer had been expected later in the year, but alliance officials said battles with resurgent guerrillas in the south showed the need to pool British, Dutch and Canadian troops under NATO with separate U.S. forces was now urgent. Afghanistan is experiencing the most serious violence since hardline Taliban Islamists were removed in 2001, and NATO knows its credibility as a genuine fighting force is at stake in the toughest combat in its 57-year history. Nearly 140 foreign troops, most of them American, British and Canadian, have been killed in fighting or accidents during operations since January, and NATO has acknowledged it underestimated the scale of Taliban resistance. ISAF currently has just over 20,000 troops from 37 countries operating in the capital Kabul and the north, west and south. The bulk of them are European. The U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom coalition has a similar number. Some U.S. forces will remain outside ISAF command to mount search-and-destroy missions against major Taliban and al Qaeda targets. "A good commander would see that he adjusted his tactics and and his techniques and allocation of forces in a way that's appropriate. The enemy has got a brain. The enemy has obviously decided that once NATO went in NATO would be a soft touch so they went after NATO and they were surprised. NATO was not soft, NATO was hard and NATO pushed them back and they didn't like it," Rumsfeld said. Poland has offered 1,000 troops to be deployed by next February, and Romania is expected to offer a similar number. Bulgarian Defence Minister Veselin Bliznakov told Reuters it could take a decision to send more troops in October. Alliance sources said Canada, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Slovakia declared intentions to commit extra forces at some point but did not say how many more troops such offers would add.

ITN Source | September 29, 2006

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