WASHINGTON, Jan 16: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has publicly criticised some fellow Nato forces in Afghanistan, saying they do not know how to fight a guerilla insurgency.

Gates, who on Tuesday ordered extra 3,200 US Marines to Afghanistan, said in an interview published in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that some European allies were still geared to the type of combat envisioned by Cold War planners before the fall of the Soviet Union.

“I’m worried we’re deploying (military advisers) that are not properly trained and I’m worried we have some military forces that don’t know how to do counterinsurgency operations,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

“Most of the European forces, Nato forces, are not trained in counterinsurgency. They were trained for the Fulda Gap,” said Gates, referring to the German region where a Soviet invasion of Western Europe was deemed most likely.

The US defence chief has spent months vainly urging Nato allies to send extra combat troops to Afghanistan to thwart an expected spring offensive by the Taliban, particularly in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

Gates recalled raising his concerns about the allies’ counterinsurgency skills with NATO allies at a meeting in Scotland last month but said they did not appear to share his views. “No one at the table stood up and said: ‘I agree with that,’” he said.

Nato troops deployed to southern Afghanistan include forces from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands.

In the interview, Gates contrasted NATO’s troubled experience in southern Afghanistan with the success of a US counterinsurgency program in the east under Army Maj Gen David Rodriguez.

“Our guys in the east, under Gen. Rodriguez, are doing a terrific job. They’ve got the (counterinsurgency) thing down pat,” Gates said. “But I think our allies over there, this is not something they have any experience with,” he said.

The Nato forces are led by a US commander, Army Gen Dan McNeill, who has called for greater contributions by Nato countries. Some member nations have been reluctant to deepen their involvement.—Reuters