KABUL, Dec 12: Nato-led soldiers to deploy next year to insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan will not take over counter-terrorist operations conducted by US-led forces, a spokesman said on Monday.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), made up of troops from more than 30 countries, is due to expand and move into the south amid signs the United States is seeking to cut down its presence in the volatile area.

“The mandate and the mission of the ISAF troops when they operate in the south will be that of providing security assistance to the government...and not of overt counter-insurgency or counter-terrorist operations,” spokesman Major Andy Elmes said.

They will however have the ‘correct rules of engagement’ to operate in the area, he told reporters, saying this and the future relationship of ISAF and US-led coalition forces was still being finalized.

The nearly 20,000-strong US-led coalition is based mainly in eastern and southern Afghanistan to hunt down militants loyal to the extremist Taliban government removed from power in late 2001.

Attacks by Taliban and their allies have claimed about 1,500 lives this year and cast a shadow over Afghanistan’s moves towards democracy since the removal of the hardline regime in a US-led invasion.—AFP