December 17, 2007	Monday	Zilhaj 6, 1428

WASHINGTON, Dec 16: President George Bush’s administration has launched an elaborate review of the US mission in Afghanistan amid fears Taliban and Al Qaeda forces are gaining ground, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The review comes amid a rise in attacks by Taliban insurgents this year, the bloodiest since US-led forces ousted Al Qaeda’s allies in the Taliban regime after the attacks of Sept 11, 2001.

Reflecting an anxiety in the White House that its early success in defeating the Taliban could be unraveling, the administration plans three assessments — one by the US military, one by diplomats in the State Department and one by the Nato alliance — looking at the security, economic and diplomatic aspects of the Afghan mission.

“We are looking for ways to gain greater strategic coherence,” an unnamed senior administration official told the Times.

Plans for US assessments come after Nato allies with troops in Afghanistan agreed on Friday in Edinburgh to come up with a long-term three to five-year plan to bring stability to the country over the next five years.

The US administration is increasingly concerned over shortfalls in the 40,000-member Nato-led International Security Assistance Force and a mounting Taliban insurgency.

The reviews will be designed to better coordinate efforts to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, counter rising opium production and trafficking and bolster the Kabul government’s position, the Times said.

The administration also favours an international coordinator or “super envoy” to oversee the entire international effort in Afghanistan, the paper said, citing US officials. An earlier evaluation of Iraq policy led to deploying more US troops but there are no extra troops available for Afghanistan.

When contacted, spokespeople for the State Department and Pentagon could not immediately confirm the reported US reviews.

In Afghanistan, a top US commander said on Sunday while more than 50 insurgent leaders have been killed or captured in the past year the rebels’ fighting ability has improved.

The insurgents also clearly have outside support, including perhaps from Arab countries, in their battle against the Afghan and international security forces confronting them, Brigadier General Joseph Votel told reporters.

At the Nato meeting last week, Gates and other ministers agreed to look for other ways Nato countries can make contributions that would be politically more palatable to them but still free up other countries’ troops for combat duties.

“We’re going to try to look at this more creatively than we have perhaps in the past where we basically have just been hammering on people to provide more people,” Gates told reporters travelling with him.—AFP