KABUL, April 22: The commander of the coalition forces in Afghanistan, Gen David W. Barno, wants the Pakistani military to continue operation in its tribal areas and capture or kill the foreign fighters holed up there.
"We all share the concerns about the foreign fighters that are clearly located in the Al Qaeda elements holed up in that area and we certainly expect the Pakistan military to continue the operation to capture or kill those foreign fighters who are located inside Pakistani sovereign territory," said Gen Barno in a press talk with the visiting Pakistani journalists at Kabul Compound, the headquarters of the Combined Force Command in Afghanistan.
The overall impression gathered from the press talk was that the Americans planned a long stay in this country. He ruled out possibility of sending coalition troops across the border into Pakistan's tribal areas as, according to him, the Pakistani military had the wherewithal and professionalism to conduct operations as Islamabad felt it necessary in Waziristan.
Answering a question, he said the coalition was having a lot of success in the war against the terrorists and added that "we have clearly seen some positive results from the Pakistani military operation".
"There is much of change in the typical spring offensive we had seen last year with Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants, and Pakistani military operation had a bigger factor." Gen Barno emphasized that "Pakistan should do more to finally close this threat in this part of the world, because we clearly know it is there."
Asked about the recent tripartite commission's meeting in Islamabad, Gen Barno said the Wana operation was reviewed and discussion was also held on the "current posture of the troops". He disclosed that during that meeting some future operations were also discussed.
Asked to what extent the coalition and Afghan troops had been successful in plugging the escape routes from Waziristan, Gen Barno dispelled any significant movement across the border.
"We have forces that are positioned down there to block any escape routes out of Waziristan, should the enemy decide under pressure from your (Pakistan) army to try and infiltrate into Afghanistan, we are in a good position to exploit that and attack the enemy if he does flee into Afghanistan," said Gen Barno.
He made it clear that during the recent operation in Wana his troops did not "see the outflow of people coming into Afghanistan as a result of the Pakistani military operation". This was contrary to what was claimed by some Western reports and Pakistani officials.
The US General was of the view that the "terrorist elements had realized that significant forces were waiting for them inside Afghanistan. If that happens we are prepared to deal with the situation."
Answering a question about border issues between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he observed that the number of border incidents had dropped almost to nothing in the past 90 days, particularly in the northern and eastern areas of the Pakistan-Afghan border. This was also because of better logistical contact between local commanders on either side of the border.
When asked how could the coalition describe its operation in this country a success when Mulla Omar and Osama bin Laden had not been captured, Gen Barno said: "That would have finished my job here. But a lot has to be done yet."
He said besides focusing on the leadership of the Taliban and Al Qaeda network the rank and file of these organizations was also being tackled. He disagreed with a questioner that the coalition had no or little influence outside Kabul, and said that "we have well over 14,000 troops in areas outside Kabul and a large number of them was deployed in the south and east of the country".
In addition to security duties, the troops are also looking after the regional and provincial teams responsible for development work in the country to enable the Kabul government to become stronger.
Asked whether the coalition troops had found some tunnel through which the so-called high value targets had escaped during the Waziristan operation, Gen Barno said: "We read reports from your operations in South Waziristan where they removed some buildings and they found some tunnels."
"We have not seen any on the Afghan side," he said, adding that "there were caves and not the tunnels". Asked what posed greater threat to the country, resurgence of terrorism or the infighting among the Afghan warlords, Gen Barno said security was multi-layered.
