WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended US strategy in Afghanistan Monday after Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on Washington to reduce its military footprint and Taliban leaders ruled out peace talks.
Insurgent violence meanwhile showed no signs of letting up as nine security guards were killed and a Taliban rocket attack on a military base destroyed six armored vehicles in Afghanistan on Monday.
The violence occurred in the build-up to a key NATO summit in Lisbon, where the continued presence of foreign forces in the country -- and the timetable for their withdrawal -- is likely to be high on the agenda.
Clinton defended “intelligence-driven, precision-targeted” US military operations in Afghanistan as having “a significant impact on the insurgent leadership and the networks that they operate,” following criticism from Karzai.
The chief US diplomat said the “operations are conducted in full partnership” with the Kabul government, with Afghan forces included in each operation.
But, Clinton added, the United States remains “very sensitive of the concerns” expressed by Karzai.
In a weekend interview with the Washington Post, Karzai had urged the US military to lighten its footprint in his country and shift toward a more civilian development operation to “reduce the intrusiveness into the daily Afghan life.”His calls -- including those for sharply reducing night raids in local communities -- run counter to US plans to intensify the offensive against the Taliban before any withdrawal, possibly as early as mid-2011.
The Washington Post then reported Monday that US General David Petraeus, the coalition commander in Afghanistan, had voiced “astonishment and disappointment” over Karzai's calls, saying they could undermine progress against the insurgency.
In Brussels, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he did not agree with everything Karzai said.
But he added that his comments were in line with the NATO-led mission's plan to endorse at a summit in Lisbon on Saturday a plan to start the handover of security responsibility to Afghan forces early next year.
Nonetheless, there are indications that there is a growing recognition within the 28-member bloc that a full withdrawal is likely to come later rather than sooner, with the end of 2014 -- or beyond -- seen as more realistic.
The US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said on a visit to Islamabad that some troops would withdraw from July next year as the coalition aimed to transfer security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
The Taliban high command meanwhile ruled out a negotiated settlement, calling reports that they were involved in peace talks “misleading rumors” and vowing to step up their campaign of targeted strikes at coalition troops.
“The aim is to entangle the enemy in an exhausting war of attrition and wear it away like the former Soviet Union,” the militant group said in a statement attributed to its one-eyed leader, Mullah Omar.
“Our strategy is to increase our operations step by step and spread them to all parts of the country to compel the enemy to come out from their hideouts and then crush them through tactical raids,” he added.
With violence unabated, Monday's deadliest strike was on a telecommunications tower in northern Kunduz province. Nine security guards, an Afghan police officer and seven Taliban were killed, local police said.
Telephone antennae have become a target for the Taliban and other insurgents since the militant group banned mobile telephone communications at night in areas they control.
The rebels maintain that the Afghan security forces and their international backers in the 150,000-strong US-led NATO force track down militants using mobile phone signals.
In Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's extension of a military mission in Afghanistan beyond a parliamentary-mandated 2011 exit drew fire from opposition parties on Monday.
Ottawa last week announced it would deploy hundreds of military trainers until 2014 to help Afghan security forces take over security in the war-torn nation. – AFP
