Thaindian News

Washington, Aug 10 (DPA) The US commander has announced a change of strategy in Afghanistan, warning that insurgents with the Islamist extremist Taliban had made advances in the country, according to a media report Monday.
Quoting an interview with General Stanley McChrystal from Saturday, the Wall Street Journal said the Taliban have been able to make strikes outside their normal strongholds in the south of the country and threaten previously peaceful regions in the north and the west.

“It’s a very aggressive enemy right now,” McChrystal said.

“We’ve got to stop their momentum, stop their initiative. It’s hard work,” he said, adding that casualties among US troops were liable to be high for several months.

Speaking from a NATO base in Kabul, McChrystal said his new strategy was to concentrate more troops in threatened cities and populated areas, naming specifically the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

He said the main role of the troops would be to protect the civilian population better from Taliban threats and intimidation.

At the end of August, McChrystal is to deliver a 60-day status report in Washington. The newspaper, citing high-ranking military officials, said that the general would likely back a request by his predecessor General David McKiernan for 10,000 additional troops for Afghanistan.

US President Barack Obama has already provided 21,000 troops to Afghanistan to arrive by autumn, bringing the US military presence there to 68,000. Another 30,000 soliders are in Afghanistan from members of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and other countries.

Following the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, the US invaded Afghanistan to rid the country of the Al Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban-led government that gave it refuge.