NATO Taking Over Critical Provinces in Southern Afghanistan

29 July 2006

Alliance plans to expand operations over entire country by end of year

By Vince Crawley
Washington File Staff Writer

U.S. General James Jones, NATO’s top operational commander, is expected July 31 to issue formal orders for the military alliance to begin operating in four critical provinces of southern Afghanistan, including Kandahar.

"NATO will now assist the government of Afghanistan in providing security across approximately 75 percent of Afghanistan’s territory," alliance officials said in a news release July 28 from NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. NATO forces are scheduled to take over Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces, bringing a total of 13 PRTs under NATO control.

The expansion was formally approved July 28 by NATO’s North Atlantic Council in Brussels. (See NATO news release.)

NATO forces are already responsible for multinational military operations in much of northern and northwestern Afghanistan. With Jones’ activation order, the number of troops under NATO command will increase from 10,500 to approximately 18,000. However, most of those troops have already been serving in Afghanistan as part of the U.S.-led multinational coalition, which removed the Taliban regime from power in late 2001.

British Lieutenant General David J. Richards, commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), told reporters July 29 in Kabul that he expects to see an improvement in Afghanistan’s security situation within three to six months. ISAF is also expected to move into Afghanistan’s eastern provinces by the end of the year, at which time NATO will operate throughout the country, Richards said. The eastern provinces include the dangerous border areas with Pakistan where Taliban remnants have sought refuge among tribes who distrust any outside government influence.

According to news accounts, Richards said he expects NATO’s operations to keep up pressure on militants opposed to Afghanistan’s elected government while also assisting the government as it fights the opium trade, which provides drugs to much of Europe. NATO forces also plan to promote development and reconstruction so that local Afghan citizens can feel they have something at stake in the success of their government, led by President Hamid Karzai.

The Afghanistan mission is considered critical for both NATO and the international community. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has 26 member nations, but forces from at least 37 nations are helping Afghan military and police take control of their country from a violent mix of terrorists, religious militants, regional warlords and drug traffickers.

If the world gives up on Afghanistan, "we’ll be right back where we were on September 10, 2001," a U.S. military spokesman said July 28, according to an article by the U.S. Defense Department. Afghanistan’s former Taliban government harbored the al-Qaida terrorist network responsible for attacking the United States on September 11, 2001. (See Defense Department article.)

Afghanistan is vital both as a strategic mission and as a testing ground for NATO and the international community to cooperate in a complex, dangerous global environment, Victoria Nuland, U.S. ambassador to NATO, said in a Washington File interview in July. (See related article.)

"On the military operations side, missions one, two, three through six are Afghanistan," Nuland said, adding that Afghanistan is expected to dominate the NATO summit this November in Riga, Latvia.

Visiting Afghanistan on July 20-21, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands said that the country needs more international attention, adding there can be no lasting security without development.

"I think the attention of the international community could be higher than it is at the moment," de Hoop Scheffer said. "A high level of political attention is absolutely essential."

More than 18,000 U.S. forces also remain in Afghanistan. Some will fall under NATO command while others will remain part of Combined Forces Command --Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting combat operations against militant groups.

Military

NATO Taking Over Critical Provinces in Southern Afghanistan