BRUSSELS/KABUL , 14 September 2006 — NATO generals struggled yesterday to persuade allies to provide an extra 2,000 troops urgently sought by commanders caught unawares by the ferocity of Taleban resistance to the alliance push into southern Afghanistan. The alliance, created to defend Europe against Soviet attack, has been forced into the first major land battle in its 57-year history as Taleban insurgents defy a drive by 8,000 British-led NATO troops into the southern heartlands of Afghanistan’s Islamist former rulers.
NATO commanders acknowledge being surprised by the level of resistance. They called a conference at the alliance’s military headquarters in southern Belgium to try to muster reinforcements and extra air cover in an effort to crush the Taleban before they slip back to mountain hideaways for the winter. British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged other allies to support the mission.
“It is important that the whole of NATO regards this as their responsibility,” Blair told a news conference in London. “NATO is looking at what further requirements there are, and NATO and NATO countries have got a duty to respond to that.”
However, European allies, with thousands of troops already committed elsewhere in Afghanistan or in Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia, Congo and most recently Lebanon, are wary of sending more to the battlefields of Kandahar and Helmand, where recent fighting has killed more than 30 NATO troops and hundreds of militants.
NATO’s top operational commander, US Gen. James L. Jones, made the appeal for more troops last week, saying the force is about 15 percent short of full strength.
Suicide bombings have killed 173 people in Afghanistan this year, NATO announced yesterday amid a sharp escalation of Taleban violence, which saw at least 40 people killed in southern and western clashes yesterday.
A suicide attacker was the sole victim of a bombing inside a Sunni Muslim mosque in southern Kandahar city, while militants fired two rockets into the eastern city of Jalalabad ahead of a visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Police said there were no casualties.
A man detonated explosives concealed under his clothing inside the empty mud-brick Saidon Mosque following midday prayers, said policeman Jan Mohammed. The blast destroyed several rooms and walls in the building, but there were no other casualties. The motive for the explosion and the bomber’s identity were unclear.
NATO spokesman Maj. Luke Knittig said 151 of the year’s suicide attack victims were Afghan civilians, including children, while the remainder included NATO and US-led coalition forces and Afghan authorities.
